Kurds oust ISIS, retake Kirkuk oil field and villages
Baku, February 5, AZERTAC
Iraqi Kurdish forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province Saturday that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive, officers said.
“Peshmerga forces and police cleared the Khubbaz (oil) field a little while ago and were able to enter it after surrounding it for hours,” police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader said of the fighting, adding that they also retook eight villages.
IS had moved into the oil field Friday night and seized 24 workers, who were freed after they withdrew, peshmerga Major General Westa Rasul said.
A police colonel said their liberation was delayed because of fears that the bunker where they were held had been rigged with explosives.
During the fighting on Saturday, a sniper killed peshmerga Major General Hussein Mansur, Colonel Kawa Gharib said.
A peshmerga major was also killed and four more fighters wounded when an explosives-rigged house blew up.
Mansur was the second senior Kurdish officer to die in two days, after Brigadier General Shirko Rauf was killed Friday during a major IS attack in Kirkuk province.
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