ISIS launched a “surprise attack” on federal police forces in the Arab Koy area of the city of Daquq, Kirkuk province, Luis Fandi, the mayor of Daquq district told Rudaw English on Friday morning. At least one police officer was killed and three others were injured.
Security reinforcements were sent to the region to control the situation and prevent ISIS from launching new attacks, he added.
Though ISIS was declared militarily defeated in Iraq in December 2017, remnants of the terrorist group have been able to conduct attacks on security and civilian targets, even in the capital Baghdad. The group is especially active in areas disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), where security is patchy.
Kirkuk lies within these disputed territories. After the rise of ISIS, it was under Kurdish control until October 2017, when Iraqi forces retook the disputed territories following the KRG's independence referendum.
In the latest edition of its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba, ISIS claimed it had killed and injured at least 10 security forces members including Popular Mobilization forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) in multiple operations between February 5 and February 12 in Kirkuk.
The Kurdish leadership have long called for the return of their Peshmerga forces to Kirkuk to boost security. The absence of the Peshmerga in some parts of the disputed territories has "intensified problems," deputy Iraqi parliament speaker Bashir Haddad said on January 4.
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command on Thursday denied any presence of Peshmerga forces inside Kirkuk province.
"The Iraqi Army and Federal Police forces are in Kirkuk, and there is coordination between them and the Peshmerga forces," the spokesperson for joint operations, Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, told state media on Thursday.
"There is no movement or deployment of Peshmerga forces inside Kirkuk," he added.
Peshmerga Affairs Minister Shorsh Ismail said in January his ministry is looking forward to reaching "a political agreement" with the Iraqi government to return Kurdish forces to the disputed territories.
