Kurdish forces repel Islamic State attack on oil-rich Kirkuk

Militants from the Islamic State group launched a multipronged attack Friday on the northern Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk, seizing a downtown building and attacking at least three points along the city’s defensive perimeter, authorities said.

Iraqi Kurdish forces said they had beaten back the assault, but a well-known commander of the Kurdish peshmerga, Brig. Gen. Sherko Shwani, was among at least seven Kurdish fighters reported killed in fighting in and around the city. Dozens of militants were reported killed in the various attacks.

The Islamic State strike came as the extremist group has suffered a series of battlefield setbacks in Iraq and neighboring Syria, puncturing the indomitable image that the group has tried to project.

The militants this week retreated from the northern Syrian city of Kobani after failing to overrun the Kurdish-controlled town on the border with Turkey.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish forces have been steadily closing in on the city of Mosul, an Islamic State stronghold. Some speculated that Friday’s attacks on Kirkuk may have been an effort to divert or stretch Kurdish manpower.

Several Islamic State attacks were also reported Friday on Kurdish positions south and east of Mosul. The Kurdish news site Rudaw reported that heavy fog had prevented deployment of aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing extremist positions for months.

Kurdish reinforcements reportedly were being rushed to Kirkuk, a long-contested city in the middle of an oil-rich stretch of Iraq.

Forces from Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region swept into Kirkuk last year when Iraqi government troops retreated in the face of a rapid Islamic State advance through northern and western Iraq. The Kurds hold a more than 600-mile front line against Islamic State units.

Kirkuk is vulnerable to attack from sleeper cells in the city and militant positions just a few miles way, Kurdish officials say. Islamic State covets the city for its oil riches and its symbolic significance to Iraqi Arabs, who dispute Kurdish claims on Kirkuk.

Friday’s attack featured a dramatic militant takeover of the former Kirkuk Palace Hotel, preceded by the explosion of a car bomb outside the centrally located structure, which has been vacant for years. Footage from the scene showed Kurdish forces firing from the street into the six-story hotel and climbing into the building as militants emptied rounds from their perches.

Kurdish fighters stormed the hotel and killed four attackers, said Ferhad Hama, police spokesman in Kirkuk. All were wearing suicide belts, he said. The militants wanted to set up sniper positions and fire on the city, the spokesman said.

“Their intention was to control the center of Kirkuk and create chaos there,” said Hama.

Kurdish authorities have been concerned about Islamic State sleeper cells within Kirkuk, which has a mixed population including Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Christians. The city also has absorbed tens of thousands of people displaced in fighting elsewhere.