October 21, 2016
Kurdish police have claimed to have so far killed 6 ISIS militants, who were sleeper cells.
ISIS terrorists have also claimed to have stormed an electricity company in the Dibs district in northern Kirkuk, killing all people. Reports have said power is out in Kirkuk.
Alalam have reported that of the 16 people killed, 4 were Iranian technicians.
ISIS terrorists seized Dar al-Salam hotel in the center of Kirkuk city.
ISIS have also claimed to have a hit a convoy of Peshmerga forces in the Dibs District of northern Kirkuk, 25km north of the oil-rich city.
Meanwhile in footage captured, the sounds of gunfire and explosions can be heard.
[AP footage; video posted at YouTube; 1:13 long]
Local ground sources have claimed they have seen the Iraqi air force in action, however this could not be verified by Al-Masdar News.
Anti-terrorist units have begun operations to normalize the situation in the southern sector of the city, despite images of ISIS terrorists roaming freely.
Kirkuk authories have announced a curfew and for all people to remain home whilst anti-terrorist operations are underway.
[END REPORT]
RT report:
ISIS fighters enter Kirkuk mosques, kindergarten, take civilians hostage – report
Published time: 21 Oct, 2016 08:17
Edited time: 21 Oct, 2016 13:38
[...]
“It was expected that ISIS sleeper cells would make a move one day in Kirkuk now that the Mosul offensive has started and they want to boost their own morale this way,” Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim told Rudaw earlier on Friday.
“Some of [the militants] have hidden themselves inside mosques and tall buildings and try to shoot as snipers, but our forces are in control and in places where escalations were feared it was all controlled. Strong forces combined of security, police, and anti-terrorism are all inside Kirkuk today,” he said.
“They were sleeper cells...many women and children fled to Kirkuk as refugees and it is possible that some militants had come with them,” Kiruk added, referring to the attackers.
The city’s police chief and governor have called on residents to stay in their homes until the situation is under control.
The unrest has so far led to the deaths of at least 28 people – six policemen, 12 militants, and 16 power station workers, according to reports from Rudaw and AFP. The workers were killed in the nearby town of Dibis, located 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Kirkuk.
[...]
However, Kirkuk’s governor reported the station had been attacked by four militants, of whom one blew himself up and three were killed. The station is now under the control of Peshmerga Kurds.
Kirkuk is located 174 kilometers (108 miles) from Mosul.
The city has accepted some 700,000 displaced people from the country’s central and southern provinces since Islamic State took control of one-third of Iraq in mid-2014, according to Rudaw. It had been home to about half a million people before the outbreak of hostilities.
The oil-rich city is claimed by both the Iraqi government and Kurds in the region. Kurdish forces assumed full control of the city in the summer of 2014, as the Iraqi army crumbled before an IS advance.
[END REPORT]
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