Unknown assailants torch Turkmen Front office in Kirkuk

By Hussein al-Amir

BAGHDAD (AA) - The Kirkuk office of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) was torched Thursday morning by unknown assailants, according to an Iraqi security source.

“Unidentified persons set fire to the ITF’s office in Kirkuk’s Altun Kubri sub-district Thursday morning,” Kirkuk Police Captain Hamed al-Obeidi told Anadolu Agency.

“The entire building was burnt to the ground,” he said.

Firefighters eventually managed to extinguish the blaze and prevent it from spreading to nearby buildings, al-Obeidi added.

On Monday, Iraqi military forces assumed control of Kirkuk province, of which Kirkuk city is regional capital, following the withdrawal of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters loyal to northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

The operation -- which also saw Iraqi troops deploy in other disputed parts of the country -- came on the heels of the KRG’s illegitimate Sept. 25 referendum on Kurdish regional independence.

Peshmerga forces seized oil-rich Kirkuk, which lies outside Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, after the Daesh terrorist group overran vast territories in the country’s northern and western regions in mid-2014.