Story highlights
U.S. military says chemical weapons expert killed in airstrike near Mosul last week
Officials: Iraqi forces fend off ISIS fighters in Ramadi
Militants have taken over an area southwest of the city of Kirkuk
ISIS militants have attacked Kirkuk in northern Iraq, an effort that might be an earnest attempt to capture the key oil-rich city or perhaps to divert Kurdish troops fighting to capture the Islamist extremist group’s stronghold of Mosul.
For months, ISIS has been facing off with the Peshmerga – armed fighters who protect Iraqi Kurdistan – to the west of Kirkuk. It had gone into areas on Kirkuk’s outskirts, but not the central city.
Until now, apparently.
Heavily armed militants attacked an abandoned hotel in central Kirkuk that local police had used as their headquarters.
Peshmerga and Kurdish anti-terror units later raided the hotel, wresting control of it from the militants and killing three of them, according to Peshmerga sources. In addition, two suicide bombers detonated themselves in an attempt to keep the Kurdish forces out.
Also Friday, ISIS militants took over Maktab Khalid, an area about 12 miles southwest of Kirkuk, after heavy clashes with the Peshmerga.
Among those killed was Brig. Gen. Shirko Fateh, the highest-ranking operational commander of the Peshmerga brigade located in Kirkuk.
Photos posted by ISIS purportedly show the group’s militants in control of parts of south and southwest Kirkuk, burning tents that had been used by Peshmerga troops.
Chemical weapons expert killed, U.S. says
The U.S. military said Friday that an ISIS chemical weapons expert was killed during a coalition strike late last week.
Abu Malik worked in Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons program before joining al Qaeda in 2005, U.S. Central Command said.
He was killed January 24 near Mosul.
“His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish (ISIS’) ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people,” the military said.
There is no public evidence that ISIS has a dedicated weapons of mass destruction program.
But U.S. Central Command said: “His past training and experience provided the terrorist group with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability.”
Oil reserves make Kirkuk a big prize
Kirkuk is a strategically important city in the months-long fight, one that has pitted ISIS against the Peshmerga, Iraqi government troops and an international coalition that has carried out airstrikes against the terrorist group.
It is one of the few notable cities – apart from the region of Kurdistan and its capital, Irbil – in northern Iraq that haven’t fallen to ISIS. Part of its significance stems from the fact its oil reserves are almost as much as those in southern Iraq.
The Kurds and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad have long wrangled over control of those reserves, with each side wanting to keep hold of them. ISIS, which relies heavily on revenue from oil smuggling to fund its operations, has been coveting them, too.