[Al Jazeera] Iraqi security forces have launched a "major operation" in Kirkuk to take control of a strategic Kurdish military base and oil fields, according Kurdish and Iraqi officials.The aim of the advance early on Monday was taking control of the K1 airbase, west of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
Lieutenant Colonel Salah el-Kinani, of the Iraqi army's 9th armoured division, told Rooters news agency.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council said that Iraqi forces and members of the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) - paramilitary units largely made up of Iran-trained Shia militias - were advancing from Taza, south of Kirkuk, in a "major operation".
"Their intention is to enter the city and take over (the) K1 base and oil fields," it said in a post on Twitter.
800 militants surrender to Kurds
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Around 800 Islamic State militants turned in themselves to the Kurdish Peshmerga troops in Kirkuk, a paramilitary official said on Sunday.
Speaking to AlSumaria News, Jabbar al-Maamouri, leader with al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said “around 800 IS militants turned in themselves to Peshmerga deployed in Kirkuk after fleeing Hawija.”
“Thirty IS leaders, who were emirs of four of the group’s states, including Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahuddin, were among those who extradited themselves,” Maamouri added.
Regarding destiny of the arrested militants, Maamouri described it as mysterious. “Peshmerga did not provide information about places to which the militants were transferred.”
Last week, Ahmed Khorsid, member of Hawija council, said Iraqi troops should launch operation to comb Hawija as well as villages of al-Dibs town, southwest of Kirkuk, and the northwest of the province. He warned that IS militants could be hiding at underground tunnels or remote regions in order to attack the troops again.
Iraq accuses Kurds of 'declaration of war' in Kirkuk
[Al Jazeera] The Iraqi government has accused Kurdish authorities of bringing fighters from
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to the disputed province of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
in a move it called a "declaration of war".
The accusation was quickly rejected by Kurdish officials later on Sunday.
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and allied militia are locked in a tense armed standoff with Kurdish forces in the oil-rich province amid a sharp row between the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.
The National Security Council headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said it viewed as a "dangerous escalation" the presence of gunnies "not belonging to the regular security forces in Kirkuk", including PKK fighters.
"It is impossible to remain silent" faced with "a declaration of war towards Iraqis and government forces", the council said a statement posted on the prime minister's official Twitter account.