Kirkuk, under Full Control of Iraqi Forces: Governor
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Kirkuk city in northern Iraq is calm and under the control of the country’s security forces after their heavy clashes with militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the governor of Kirkuk Governorate announced on Saturday.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Najmaldin Karim described the situation in oil-rich Kirkuk as “calm” after the city came under heavy attacks by the ISIL terrorists over the past two days.
“The situation in the city is completely under the control of security forces,” the Iraqi official said.
He went on to say that 48 ISIL militants were killed during clashes with the Kurdish regional government's peshmerga forces supported by the Iraqi Army.
He emphasized that there are sufficient forces to fight ISIL terrorists in Kirkuk, adding that the army and peshmerga forces are still fighting with ISIL militants in some villages and towns of the Kirkuk Governorate.
Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the ISIL terrorist group.
The ISIL militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the past summer, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive.
