Militants from so-called Islamic State attacked police stations and a power plant in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, reported AP.
Citing local witnesses, AP reported that multiple explosions rocked the city in Friday’s assault and that gunfire could be heard ringing through the city.
Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported that at least 16 had been killed.
The BBC reported that security forces repelled the fighters, with IS saying it was behind the attack.
According to the BBC, IS fighters also broke into the town hall and took control of a hotel.
The power plant is being built by an Iranian company, Dibis Mayor Abdullah Nureddin al-Salehi told AFP.
“Three suicide bombers attacked the power plant at around 6am (3am GMT), killing 12 Iraqi administrators and engineers and four Iranian technicians,” stated al-Salehi.
A curfew has been imposed in Kirkuk “until further notice“, Iraqi media said.
Beirut-based newspaper Al-Sumaria reported that after the dawn attack, police had killed one suicide bomber but three others blew themselves up.
A district police chief, Sarhad Qadir, told the paper that the situation was “under control“.
The attack comes as the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are making a major push to drive so-called Islamic State militants from Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul.
Kirkuk is an oil rich city some 290km north of Baghdad that is claimed by both Iraq’s central government and the country’s Kurdish region.
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