Iraqi Army Takes Over Kirkuk as Kurdish Peshmerga Flee
Iraqi Army Takes Over Kirkuk as Kurdish Peshmerga Flee by Ed Adamczyk – UPI
Kurdish Peshmerga troops left the city of Kirkuk on Monday after Iraqi troops captured vital installations in and around the city, Baghdad's army said — the latest moves in a standoff that arose from a vote for Kurdish independence last month.
Officials said the K-1 military base is now under Iraqi army control, as are oil fields in resource-rich Kurdistan province.
The Kurdish military peacefully withdrew from the Maktab Khaled and Tal a-Ward regions, south of Kirkuk, with the Iraqi Federal Police now controlling the area.
Clashes broke out, though, between the Kurdish Peshmerga and troops of the al-Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces — one of Iraq's pro-government independent militias — south of the city, Iraqi News reported on Monday. It said at least 30 Peshmerga troops were hospitalized.
The Iraqi army turned its attention to the Peshmerga after Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region of Iraq, voted overwhelmingly for independence last month — a referendum opposed by Baghdad…
