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| ISIS Fighters in Iraq Attack Kirkuk, Diverting Attention From Mosul | ISIS Fighters in Iraq Attack Kirkuk, Diverting Attention From Mosul |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| ERBIL, Iraq — Facing a broad offensive from Iraqi and Kurdish troops, the Islamic State has defended villages around Mosul with its signature guerrilla tactics of suicide car attacks and roadside bombs. But on Friday morning, militants attacked the strategic oil city of Kirkuk in the manner of a conventional army. | ERBIL, Iraq — Facing a broad offensive from Iraqi and Kurdish troops, the Islamic State has defended villages around Mosul with its signature guerrilla tactics of suicide car attacks and roadside bombs. But on Friday morning, militants attacked the strategic oil city of Kirkuk in the manner of a conventional army. |
| Dozens of uniformed Islamic State fighters in vehicles assaulted Kirkuk, setting off gun battles for hours in the heart of the city, according to local officials and to the militant group itself. Imams shut down all mosques in the city, canceling Friday Prayer. | Dozens of uniformed Islamic State fighters in vehicles assaulted Kirkuk, setting off gun battles for hours in the heart of the city, according to local officials and to the militant group itself. Imams shut down all mosques in the city, canceling Friday Prayer. |
| The battle scenes and the sound of automatic gunfire inside the city, broadcast live on local television, were reminiscent of the Islamic State’s brazen march across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. That offensive also involved multiple suicide attacks on police positions inside the city, and gunmen later took up positions in a mosque and a school, and on top of other buildings. | The battle scenes and the sound of automatic gunfire inside the city, broadcast live on local television, were reminiscent of the Islamic State’s brazen march across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. That offensive also involved multiple suicide attacks on police positions inside the city, and gunmen later took up positions in a mosque and a school, and on top of other buildings. |
| The attack on Kirkuk — a vital city to Iraq’s Kurds that has been under their control for more than two years — diverted attention, at least for a day, from the four-day offensive on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been under the control of the Islamic State for more than two years. | The attack on Kirkuk — a vital city to Iraq’s Kurds that has been under their control for more than two years — diverted attention, at least for a day, from the four-day offensive on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been under the control of the Islamic State for more than two years. |
| For the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, the attack demonstrated the militant group’s ability to stage attacks in urban areas even as it became encircled in Mosul, the largest city it controls in Syria or Iraq, by tens of thousands of troops backed by American air power. | For the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, the attack demonstrated the militant group’s ability to stage attacks in urban areas even as it became encircled in Mosul, the largest city it controls in Syria or Iraq, by tens of thousands of troops backed by American air power. |
| It was also a potent reminder that even if Mosul is wrested from it — which may take a long time and come at great cost, Western leaders have warned — the Islamic State, given its appeal to disenfranchised Sunnis, would most likely live on for some time. | |
| By early afternoon, after the local government in Kirkuk had instituted a curfew, officials said gun battles were continuing in the city. As the militants attacked Kirkuk, a separate attack involving three suicide bombers occurred at a power station in Dibis, a town north of the city, killing more than a dozen workers, including some from Iran, according to Abdullah Noor al-Deen, the mayor of Dibis. |