Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have
taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before
an Islamist offensive nearby.
"The whole of Kirkuk has fallen
into the hands of peshmerga," Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters.
"No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now."
Kurdish fighters are seen as a
bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents who seized towns in the region this
week.
The fall of the city of Mosul sent
shock waves across the Middle East.
Kirkuk and the surrounding province
of Tamim are at the heart of a political and economic dispute between Iraq's
Arabs and Kurds.
Kurdish fighters outside Kirkuk on Wednesday
• Under Saddam Hussein's programme of "Arabisation", Kurds were
driven from Kirkuk and replaced with settlers from the south, and the Iraqi
government continues to assert control over nearby oil fields, with the backing
of the local Turkmen community• The Kurdistan Regional Government, which administers three provinces to the north-east, is pushing for Arabisation to be reversed
• In May 2013, Kurdish fighters took up positions on the outskirts of Kirkuk after Iraqi security forces were redeployed to deal with Sunni militants elsewhere
• A census and referendum on the affiliation of the province has been repeatedly delayed by the broader political crisis in Iraq
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27809051
