Iraqi Forces Move To Take Control Of Kirkuk

Iraq's military has seized two major oil fields outside the disputed city of Kirkuk from Kurdish forces.

The military said in a statement today that federal forces are now in control of the North Oil Company and Baba Gurgur fields.

Iraqi forces advanced on Kirkuk overnight, clashing with Kurdish forces on the outskirts.

The city is outside the Kurdish autonomous region but claimed by the Kurds and the central government.

The Kurds and the central government have long been divided over the sharing of revenues from the oil fields outside Kirkuk.

Kurdish forces have abandoned their positions outside Kirkuk's airport and civilians were fleeing in large numbers.

Federal forces had earlier seized an industrial area and a power plant to the south of the city.

The fighting comes amid soaring tensions after the Kurds voted for independence last month in a non-binding referendum rejected as unconstitutional by Baghdad.

Both the Kurdish forces and the federal forces have been armed and trained by the United States, and both are allies against the Islamic State group.

State-run Al-Iraqiya TV had earlier reported that federal forces rolled into parts of the countryside outside Kirkuk without facing resistance.

However, some residents of the city and an Iraqi militia commander reported shelling.

Al-Iraqiya carried a statement from prime minister Haider al-Abadi's office saying he had ordered federal forces to "impose security in the city in cooperation with the inhabitants and the peshmerga", indicating he was willing to share administration.

The Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq are some of the most productive oil producers in the country, while Kirkuk is home to the area's oldest oil fields.

They claim that there had been an artillery exchange between Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and mainly Shiite paramilitaries south of Kirkuk city.

Al Jazeera reported that the Iraqi central government issued a deadline on Saturday, ordering the Peshmerga fighters surrender key military positions seized over the last three years, during counter attacks on IS.

According to a senior official who spoke to Reuters, Iraqi forces are said to want control of the Kurdish-controlled K-1 airbase, previously an Iraqi air force facility.

Speaking to Bloomberg this morning, Abbas Milani, Standard University Director of Iranian Studies said: “My sense is that the ball is in the Iraqi government’s court, […]

I can’t imagine Kurdish government will back down.”

“The next few days will be fraught and in my despair, a confrontation would be a bloody one.”

Oil was discovered in Kirkuk in 1927 and can produce more than 1 million barrels per day pumping at only less than half its capacity.

Tensions between the two sides have been high since the future of Iraqi Kurdistan has come under question.

In September Iraqi Kurds of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, voted for independence in a referendum.