madaresharghi [1]
Iraqi forces retook a key military base, an airport and an oil field from Kurdish forces on Monday in Kirkuk Province in a major operation sparked by a controversial secession referendum.
The government said its troops had seized Kirkuk airport and had taken control of Northern Iraq’s oil company from the security forces of the autonomous Kurdish region, known as Peshmerga, Reuters reported.
The military action was the most decisive step Baghdad has taken yet to rein in the secession aspirations of the Kurds, who have governed themselves as an autonomous part of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and voted on Sept. 25 to secede.
“We call on the Peshmerga forces to serve under the federal authority as part of the Iraqi armed forces,” Prime Minister Haidar Abadi said in a statement which was read out on television. He ordered security forces “to impose security in Kirkuk in cooperation with the population of the city and the Peshmerga”, the statement said.
State television said Iraqi forces had also entered Tuz Khurmato, a flashpoint town where there had been clashes between Kurds and Turkmen ethnicity.
The Kurdish regional government did not initially confirm the Iraqi advances, but Rudaw, a major Kurdish TV station, reported that Peshmerga had left positions south of Kirkuk.
US forces have called on both sides to avoid escalation.
The US-led task international force in Iraq was “closely monitoring (the situation) near Kirkuk; urge all sides to avoid escalatory actions. Finish the fight vs. #ISIS, biggest threat to all,” a spokesman said on Twitter.
Bayan Sami Rahman, the Kurdish regional government’s representative in the United States, tweeted a plea for Washington to “use (its) leadership role to prevent war”.
According to a Kurdish official speaking on Sunday, Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, arrived in Iraq’s Kurdistan region for talks about the escalating crisis between the Kurdish authorities and the Iraqi government.
Thousands of residents were seen fleeing Kirkuk, according to an AFP journalist.
Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces exchanged artillery fire early Monday south of the capital of the oil-rich province, after the launch of the operation overnight which triggered a spike in oil prices on world markets.
But after the initial clashes Iraqi forces made rapid progress, suggesting Kurdish forces were withdrawing with little or no resistance.
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command also said its forces had retaken the K1 military base northwest of Kirkuk, the military airport east of the city and the Baba Gargar oil field, one of six in the disputed region.
Baghdad considers last month’s Kurdish referendum illegal, especially as it was held not just in the autonomous region itself but in territory in northern Iraq, including Kirkuk, which the Kurdish Peshmerga occupied after driving out Daesh terrorists.
The Kurdish militants moved into Kirkuk in 2014, capitalizing on a quick withdrawal of Iraqi troops from the city amid Daesh assaults.
The Kurdish secession bid was strongly opposed by neighbors Iran and Turkey. Washington, allied with the Kurds for decades, had pleaded in vain for them to cancel the vote, arguing that it could lead to regional war and the breakup of Iraq.
The government said its forces, including the elite U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service, had moved almost unopposed into the industrial zone just south of Kirkuk and the oil, gas, facilities located south and west of the city.
Iraqi oil industry officials said there was no disruption to production from the facilities of the North Oil Company, which is based in Kirkuk and one of the two main oil companies that together provide nearly all of Iraq’s government revenue.
The city of Kirkuk itself remained under Kurdish control, 12 hours after the start of the Iraqi operation, but two routes in and out were under control of the Iraqi forces.
“We have no orders to enter the city, just to secure the surroundings,” a military commander involved in the operation told Reuters, adding that the Kurdish forces had pulled out in an orderly manner from the position taken by the Iraqi forces.
Another military commander said: “Kurdish leaders we consider our brothers have agreed to hand over control of North Oil and North Gas company facilities that belong to the state.”
The Peshmerga and Popular Mobilization forces exchanged artillery fire south of Kirkuk, a Kurdish security official said. The official said the Peshmerga had pushed back two assaults by the Iraqi forces south of the city and destroyed several Humvees used by Popular Mobilization.
Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city of more than a million people divided between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, is located just outside the autonomous Kurdish zone. Kurds consider it the heart of their homeland and say it was cleansed of Kurds and settled with Arabs under Saddam to secure control of the oil that was the source of Iraq’s wealth.
RT Published on Oct 16, 2017 Iraqi military seen advancing towards Kirkuk to secure Kurdish Peshmerga-controlled bases and federal installations.