Iraq forces in fierce Kirkuk clashes with IS

Kirkuk /AFP

Security forces battled for a second day on Saturday with IS gunmen who infiltrated Kirkuk in a brazen raid that rattled Iraq as it ramped up an offensive to retake Mosul.
A day after the shock attack on the Kurdish-controlled city, extremist snipers and suspected suicide bombers were still at large, prompting Baghdad to send reinforcements.
Special counter-terrorism and intelligence units were hunting down some of the dozens of IS fighters who stormed public buildings in the early hours of Friday.
“We have 46 dead and 133 wounded, most of them members of the security services, as result of the clashes with IS,” an interior ministry brigadier general said.
The toll was confirmed by a source at the Kirkuk health directorate, which called for blood donations to assist with the emergency.
The brigadier general said at least 25 extremist attackers had been killed so far and several others wounded, including a Libyan believed to be among the raid’s leaders.
The large-scale “inghimasi” attack, a term describing jihadist operations in which gunmen, often wearing suicide vests, intend to sow chaos and fight to the death rather than achieve any military goal, caught Kirkuk off guard.
The large city, which lies in an oil-producing region some 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, woke up on Friday to find extremists roaming the streets of several neighbourhoods. They used mosque loudspeakers to broadcast praise of their self-proclaimed “caliphate”, which has been shrinking steadily since last year and is looking closer than ever to collapse.

Distraction from Mosul
One attacker captured by the Kurdish security services on Friday claimed that the Kirkuk raid was planned by IS supremo Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as a diversion from the offensive on Mosul.
“Today’s attack was one of caliph Baghdadi’s plans to demonstrate that the IS is remaining and expanding and reduce the pressure on the Mosul front,” he said.
A Kirkuk-based television journalist was shot dead by an IS sniper on Friday and the city remained under curfew on Saturday as the security forces battled extremists holed up in several buildings.
Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi announced late Friday that he was sending reinforcements to Kirkuk but there was no sign of any major impact on operations around Mosul.
Pentagon chief Ashton Carter arrived in Iraq on Saturday to review the offensive, which his country and around 60 other nations support.
Mosul is much the most populous city in the “caliphate” Baghdadi declared in June 2014 and the operation to recapture it is Iraq’s largest in years.