Iraqis celebrate retaking of Kirkuk as Kurdish forces pull back

Videos are showing people waving flags, dancing and celebrating as Iraqi forces take the disputed city of Kirkuk, as Kurdish fighters leave the city without putting up a fight.

#Iraqi army captured #Kirkuk city from #Kurdish #Peshmerga. pic.twitter.com/91zB8lw391

— Dennis Kurt | Defense Observer (@byz_observer) October 16, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTj2ekz7Tfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjguhoEmeiU

Kurdish officials had accused the Iraqi army of carrying out a “major, multi-prong attack” in moving in on the city Sunday night and reported heavy clashes on the city’s outskirts, but a spokesman for Iraq’s state-backed militias says they encountered little resistance.

By midday, federal forces had moved into several major oil fields north of the city, as well as its airport and an important military base, according to Iraqi commanders. Kurdish party headquarters inside Kirkuk have been abandoned.

After initial reports of clashes in and around the city, it appeared by the afternoon as though the vastly outnumbered Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, were pulling out with hardly a fight.

Local police have stayed in place in Kirkuk as Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi called on civil servants to remain at their posts to serve the city.

Kirkuk, home to some 1 million Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians, has been at the heart of a long-running dispute between the autonomous Kurdish region and the central government in Baghdad. Both are close allies of the US.

— with AP