Iraqi forces took control of the city of Kirkuk on October 16 after Kurdish Peshmerga forces pulled out following soaring tensions over an independence referendum held by the Kurdistan Region on September 25 which included the oil rich city. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Fighting erupted inside Kirkuk on Thursday night, locals told Rudaw, adding heavy weapons were used and the gunfire lasted nearly an hour.
Afrasiaw Kamil Waisi, Kirkuk police spokesperson, announced that “a number of unidentified persons attacked the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces with “hand grenades and PK [machine gun].”
He said the attack caused no casualties.
Locals who sent a video footages to Rudaw said that RPGs, machine guns, and rifles were used.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for initiating the clash that took place in central Kirkuk, targeting a post of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism forces near the Kurdish Rahimawa and Almas neighborhoods, according to information obtained by Rudaw.
Kirkuk fell to the Iraqi army and Shiite militias of the Hashd al-Shaabi on October 16 after Peshmerga forces pulled out of the city.
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