Kurdish forces attack Daesh west of Kirkuk

ERBIL, Iraq — Kurdish forces drove Daesh militants back from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Monday, in an advance backed by heavy air strikes from a US-led coalition.

Speaking to a local television channel near the front line, Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim, who was wearing a helmet, said the purpose of the offensive was to secure Kirkuk, which the Kurds have held since last summer.

Kurdish fighters retook around 100 square kilometres, including about a dozen villages, from Daesh to the south and west of Kirkuk, killing some 100 militants, a statement from the region's security council said.

"This morning we launched an attack on three axes," Major General Omar Saleh Hassan told Reuters by telephone from the front line near Tel Ward. "Our advances are continuing."

He said his forces faced little resistance from the militants, who are also fighting to hold the city of Tikrit around 110km southwest of Kirkuk as Iraqi forces close in.

Just north of Tikrit, home city of president Saddam Hussein, Iraqi security forces and Shiite militia fighters began an offensive to regain control over the town of Al Alam.

Military commanders said some of the attacking force were ferried across from the west bank of the Tigris River, while others were approaching from other directions.

"We have confirmed information from inside Al Alam that a few Daesh fighters are still inside, mostly suiciders, and this is why we attacked them from multiple directions in order not to give them time to catch their breath," Al Alam Mayor Laith Al Jubouri said.

Advance on Daesh stronghold

Jubouri, who has spent time with the attacking forces outside Al Alam, said clashes were continuing in the south, west and north of the town.

In the Kirkuk offensive, the peshmerga destroyed four suicide car bombs and a fifth was hit by a coalition air strike, according to the Kurdistan Security Council statement.

"In addition, peshmerga forces have successfully controlled the road between Maktab Khaled Bridge and Wadi Neft intersection — a key junction linking Mosul to Kirkuk, further disrupting the enemy's freedom of movement," the statement read.

The Kurds took full control of Kirkuk last August as the Iraqi army collapsed in the north and Daesh militants overran almost a third of the country.

But the city has remained vulnerable, with the front line no more than 20 kilometres away in some places and only an irrigation canal separating the two sides. In late January, Daesh briefly overran Kurdish defences around Kirkuk.

Monday's gains bring the peshmerga closer to Daesh stronghold of Hawijah, where black-clad militants recently paraded the bodies of what they said were Shiite militiamen they had killed.