DHAKA: Islamic State (IS) militants have raided government buildings in and around the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least six police officers and 16 civilians.

Twelve IS jihadists were also killed in the dawn attack.

BBC reported that suicide bombers had attacked police stations and a power station, but that security forces had repelled the assaults.

A news agency affiliated to IS claimed its fighters had broken into Kirkuk’s town hall and seized a central hotel.

The attacks come as Iraqi pro-government forces continue an offensive to retake IS-held Mosul, to the north.

IS militants were reported to have set fire to a chemical plant south of Mosul as they retreated on Thursday.

Sources said they started the fire at the sulphur plant in al-Mishraq deliberately when they were being pushed out of the area by security forces.

There are conflicting reports about the scale and extent of the attack on Kirkuk.

A local TV channel broadcast footage of black smoke rising over the city, with automatic gunfire audible.

A district police chief, Brig Gen Sarhad Qadir, told the BBC that militants and a number of suicide bombers had attacked Kirkuk’s emergency police building, an old police directorate building, another police station, a political party headquarters and a power station in nearby Dibis that was still under construction.

Kirkuk’s governor, Najm al-Din Karim, told the Kurdish news agency, Rudaw, that Kurdish Peshmerga and counter-terrorism forces were completely in control of the situation, and said the attackers were from IS sleeper cells.

Security forces had killed six suicide bombers, Mr Karim added.

BDST: 1636 HRS, OCT 21, 2016
NJ/BD