Iraqi forces launch operation for Kurdish-held oil fields, military base

BAGHDAD — Clashes broke out early Monday as Iraqi forces moved to recapture Kurdish-held oil fields and a military base near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, after demanding that they return to the positions they occupied before collapsing in the face of an Islamic State advance three years ago.

Iraqi forces said they were under instructions to avoid violence, but Kirkuk residents said that gunfire and explosions could be heard in the city in the early morning. Kurdish media reported that Kurdish volunteer fighters rushed to take up arms.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered his forces to “protect all citizens” as they retake positions, state television reported.

The confrontation puts U.S. allies on both sides of the lines. The advancing force included Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces, who have trained closely with U.S. forces. On the other side are Kurdish peshmerga forces, also trained and equipped by the United States.

Kurdistan’s vote for independence last month, strongly opposed by Baghdad and the United States, has sharpened long-standing disputes between Baghdad and Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government in the north over land and oil. Kirkuk has been contested for decades, but Kurdish forces took control after the Iraqi military fled from large swaths of northern Iraq in 2014 in the face of an Islamic State push.

Now Iraq wants that ground back.

Baghdad has built up troops on the outskirts of the city in recent days. Army, police and forces from Iraq’s popular mobilization units, which include Shiite militias backed by Iran, have massed in the area, as Kurdish forces furiously dug defenses.

As Kurdish authorities warned of an impending attack, Abadi tried to diffuse tension, taking to Twitter to assure that Iraqi forces “cannot and will not attack our citizens.”

Iraqi commanders initially dismissed troop movements as routine deployments aimed at securing nearby Hawija, recently recaptured from Islamic State militants. But Shiite militia leaders close to Iran said that they were there to move into the province, and had presented a list of demands to Kurdish peshmerga commanders. Those demands included a Kurdish withdrawal from positions including the city’s K1-military base and oil fields.

“The orders are to surround K1 and oil fields and stop and call on the Kurdish forces to retreat,” said a counterterrorism officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “There are strict orders to avoid violence.”

But militia commanders took a more combative tone. Anyone who fights Iraqi forces is “the same as ISIS,” said Karim al-Nuri, a spokesman for Iraq’s popular mobilization units. State television said that counterterrorism forces, the 9th Division of the Iraqi army and federal police forces had taken “large areas” of the province without a fight. It said popular mobilization units took positions “outside Kirkuk.”