BAGHDAD
Thirteen people were killed on Friday by a Daesh suicide attack on a power plant in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
Local sources said the deaths followed three Daesh car-bomb attacks which prompted a curfew.
Head of Kirkuk’s provincial council, Rebwar Talabani, told Anadolu Agency Daesh gunmen and suicide attackers struck in several areas of the province “including the power plant in the Dibis district which is under construction and the old police directorate”.
According to Talabani, a number of suicide bombers detonated explosive vests inside the power plant, resulting in the deaths of 13 employees, including three Iranian nationals.
In the incident, security forces killed 10 Daesh gunmen, including suicide bombers, and the power plant has since been cleared of the militants, he said.
A source at the state-run North Oil Company, who asked not to named due to restrictions on speaking with the media, told Anadolu Agency production from oil wells, including in Dibis, was unaffected by the attack.
Earlier on Friday, a curfew was imposed in Kirkuk in the wake of other attacks, security sources said.
The sources, who spoke anonymously due to security concerns, said Daesh terrorists carried out three car-bomb attacks in various neighborhoods of the city.
Two suspected Daesh suicide bombers were involved in the former police-directorate building attack.
Kirkuk police chief Brig. Gen. Adel Zein al-Abedin told Anadolu Agency the attacks were carried out by Daesh “sleeper cells” and had targeted many security buildings plus the provincial administrative headquarters.
Home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens, the city of Kirkuk is being secured by Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq.
Daesh remains in control of the Hawija district in southwestern Kirkuk province.
Today’s attacks coincide with an ongoing offensive launched by Iraqi forces Monday to retake the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh.
Reporting by Ali Jawad : Writing by Mahmoud Barakat
