Jihadist gunmen, some of them wearing suicide vests, attacked the Iraqi city of Kirkuk today, killing at least 22 people, in an apparent effort to divert the thousands of troops and militiamen closing in on their Mosul stronghold.
The assault, together with another further north, left at least 22 people dead and came as pro-government forces were making major gains on the fifth day of their advance on the last major urban centre held by the Islamic State group in Iraq.
Kirkuk, an ethnically and religiously divided city currently under Kurdish control, woke up to find IS fighters spreading across several neighbourhoods.
A correspondent saw a group of men carrying rifles and grenades and wearing "Afghan-style clothes" walk down one street in Kirkuk.
At least five suicide bombers struck government targets in the city, including the main police headquarters, in a coordinated attack that began in the middle of the night.
IS claimed the raid, according to the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency, one of the most spectacular such attacks by the group in recent months.
Gunfire and explosions echoed across the city all morning, residents said, and live footage on local television showed street battles in several neighbourhoods.
"Around morning prayers, I saw several Dawaesh (IS fighters) enter Al-Mohammadi mosque," Haidar Abdelhussein, a teacher who lives in the Tesaeen neighbourhood, told AFP.
The governor of Kirkuk, Najmeddin Karim, said he suspected the involvement of IS sleeper cells.
According to Amaq, the jihadist group claimed to control half of the city but reports from witnesses and security officers suggest that may be an exaggeration.
Kirkuk lies 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, in an oil- rich region.
The IS fighters who attacked before dawn and later holed themselves up in several buildings appear to have no vehicles nor heavy equipment.
"Our security forces are working relentlessly to eliminate all these terrorist cells by the close of day," Colonel Arkan Hamed, from the provincial police, said.
"Sniper fire is what is preventing us from ending this now," he said.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters have played a major role in the advance on Mosul - Iraq's biggest military operation in years - and both they and federal security forces have made gains on several fronts.
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