Kirkuk Under Kurdish Peshmerga Control

ERBIL- Kurdistan Region – The multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, home to one of Iraq's largest oil fields, was taken over by Kurdish Peshmerga forces after Iraqi government troops left the city ahead of a possible attack by radical Islamic insurgents who have already seized two major Iraqi cities.

Jabar Yawar, a spokesperson for Kurdistan's Peshmerga, says Kurdish forces took "full control" of the city Thursday morning because they could not risk leaving the city's Kurdish residents, who comprise majority of the city's population -- and the oil fields -- to the mercy of the radical militants.

Partly because of its vast oil reserves, Kirkuk has long been a flashpoint between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) forces.

Now, in the absence of a strong force, the KRG says it feared the city's oil reserves would be captured by the Islamic militants, who have already seized nearly a half billion dollars from Mosul banks and are considered the "richest" terrorist group in the world.

"Iraqi forces have left all the Kurdish areas in Kirkuk province," Nadir Qadir, a senior Kurdish commander in Kirkuk, told Rudaw by telephone. “Now our forces are in full control."

The radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which fights to establish a cross-national Islamic state in the Middle East, has so far refrained from fighting the Iraqi Kurds, who have long experience of guerrilla warfare against the Iraqi government forces.

On Wednesday, some skirmishes erupted between the Peshmerga and ISIS militants. But the confrontation, seen as a mistake, soon came to a halt, with militants retreating.

Despite fears that the militants might have gotten their hands on heavy Iraqi Army weaponry such as tanks, long-range rockets and missiles, as well as rocket-firing helicopters that can be used to attack Kurdistan, a senior Kurdish official told Rudaw that he does not expect the ISIS to make such a "strategic error."

"I don't think ISIS will want to open a second war front against the Kurds," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the matter.