Kurdish forces drove the self-styled “Islamic State” (IS) terror outfit’s militants back from Kirkuk in Iraq on Monday, in an attack backed by heavy air strikes from a US-led anti-terror coalition.
Speaking to a local television channel near the frontline, Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim said “the purpose of the offensive was to secure Kirkuk”, which the Kurds have held since last summer.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters began shelling IS positions at dawn before advancing along an approximately 30km front southwest of the city, seizing several villages and gaining around 5km in some places.
“This morning we launched an attack from three axis,” Maj Gen Omar Saleh Hassan told the international news agency Reuters from the frontline near Tel Ward. “Our advances are continuing.”
He said his forces faced little resistance from militants who are also fighting to hold the city of Tikrit around 110km southwest of Kirkuk, as Iraqi forces close in.
In the offensive, elite Kurdish counter terrorism units were taking part and one official said they had managed to detonate four vehicles rigged with explosives by firing on them from a distance.
The Kurds took full control of Kirkuk last August as the Iraqi army collapsed in the north and IS militants overran almost a third of the country.
The gains bring the Peshmerga closer to the IS stronghold of Hawijah, where black-clad militants recently paraded the bodies of what they said were Shia militiamen they had killed.
Meanwhile just north of Tikrit, home city of executed former president Saddam Hussein (Al-Tikriti), Iraqi security forces and Shia militia fighters began an all out offensive to regain control over the town of Al Alam.
Military commanders said some of the attacking personnel were ferried across from the west bank of the Tigris river, while others were approaching from other directions.
“We have confirmed information from inside Al Alam that a few IS fighters are still inside, mostly ‘suiciders’ and this is why we attacked them from multiple directions in order not to give them time to catch their breath,” Al Alam Mayor Laith al Jubouri said.
The mayor said clashes were continuing in the south, west and north of the town.
