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Iraqi Forces Restore Entire Kirkuk Province

Iraqi Forces Restore Entire Kirkuk Province
folder_openIraq access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

Iraqi forces on Friday took control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk that was still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources declared.

Iraqi Forces Restore Entire Kirkuk Province

The district of Altun Kupri lies on the road between the city of Kirkuk - which fell to Iraqi forces on Monday - and Erbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region that voted in a referendum last month to secede from Iraq against Baghdad's wishes.

A force made up of Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service units, Federal Police and Popular Mobilization forces began their advance on Altun Kupri at 7:30 am, said an Iraqi military spokesman.

Meanwhile, Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew from the town, located on the Zab River, after battling the advancing Iraqi troops with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, Iraqi security sources said.

The Iraqi central government forces advanced into Kirkuk province largely unopposed as most Peshmerga forces withdrew without a fight.

Altun Kupri is the last town in Kirkuk province on the road to Erbil, lying just outside the border of the autonomous region established after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iraqi forces are seeking to reestablish Baghdad's authority over territory which the Kurdish forces occupied outside the official boundaries of their autonomous region, mostly seized since 2014 in the course of the war on Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] terrorists.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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