Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption IS militants have been targeting buildings linked to the Iraqi government

Islamic State (IS) militants have mounted a ferocious counter-attack in north Iraq, killing at least 19 people in and around the city of Kirkuk.

They attacked government buildings, killing at least six police officers, and a power station under construction, where 13 employees died, officials say.

Twelve IS fighters also reportedly died and fighting seems to be continuing.

Government and Kurdish forces began a long-awaited operation against the IS capital in Iraq, Mosul, on Monday.

Mosul lies 170km (105 miles) to the north-west of Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city claimed both by Iraq's central government and the Kurds.

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The BBC's Richard Galpin, in northern Iraq, said IS had attempted an "audacious" counter-attack on Kirkuk that had tried to show it was still a force to be reckoned with. The attack was "clearly aimed at diverting the Iraqi army" from Mosul, he said.

Hours after the initial assault, witnesses in Kirkuk said gunfire could still be heard and militants were walking openly through the streets.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Kurdish forces joined Iraqi government forces in the operation against the attack in Kirkuk

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Kurdish Peshmerga forces were said to be in full control of the situation

A state of emergency was declared and Friday sermons were cancelled as mosques remain closed.

A news agency affiliated to IS said fighters had broken into Kirkuk's city hall and seized a central hotel but officials denied this.

District police chief Brig Gen Sarhad Qadir told the BBC suicide bombers and other IS fighters had attacked three police buildings and the headquarters of a political party in Kirkuk.

"All of the militants who attacked the police emergency building and the old building of the Kirkuk police directorate have been killed but a number of other militants are still in Dumez district," he said.

The governor of Kirkuk, Najm al-Din Karim, insisted that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and counter-terrorism forces were completely in control of the situation.

He blamed the attack on IS sleeper cells.

"Because of the ongoing Mosul offensive, they may want to create a situation where forces would be withdrawn from there and the focus shifted to Kirkuk," Mr Karim told Kurdish news agency Rudaw.

"Also because they are being defeated in Mosul, they want to boost their morale with these kinds of actions."

Five Iranian employees are believed to be among the dead in the attack on the power plant to the north of Kirkuk, Iraq's electricity ministry said.

Seven other employees and five police guards were wounded.

The power plant, which is still under construction, is being built by an Iranian company. Associated Press reported that the IS fighters had asked to be taken to the Iranian workers before killing them.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A senior Iraqi army commander in Mosul says ISIS are "not that strong".

Government forces said on Friday they had regained control of a further two villages - al-Awaizat and Nanaha - south of Mosul, killing 15 IS militants and forcing 65 families to evacuate their homes.

On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein said the organisation had received reports of IS using people living near Mosul as human shields.

There were also reports the group had "shot dead civilians who have tried to rise up against them or who they suspect are disloyal", he added.</s>BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi army pushed into a town near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul on Saturday, a day after dozens of IS militants stormed into the northern city of Kirkuk, setting off two days of clashes and killing at least 80 people, mostly security forces.

Here is a look at key developments on the sixth day of the Mosul offensive.

The Iraqi army said the 9th Division has pushed into the town of Hamdaniyah, also known as Qaraqosh and Bakhdida, and raised the flag over its government compound, but the troops were likely still facing resistance in and around the town, which is some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mosul.

Hamdaniyah is believed to be largely uninhabited. IS has heavily mined the approaches to Mosul, and Iraqi forces have had to contend with roadside bombs, snipers and suicide truck bombs as they move closer to the city.

An Iraqi television journalist was shot and killed by a sniper south of Mosul, a day after another Iraqi TV reporter was shot dead while covering the clashes in Kirkuk.

Some fighting continued in Kirkuk a day after the IS assault on the city, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Mosul. The wave of attacks in and around Kirkuk appeared to be an attempt to divert attention from Mosul.

The Kirkuk police said at least 80 people were killed in the assault, mainly Kurdish security forces. Another 170 were wounded, and a sundown curfew has been imposed on the city. The police said they recovered the bodies of 56 militants who took part in the attack.

As the assault on Kirkuk was underway, an airstrike hit a funeral procession in the town of Daquq to the south, killing 17 people, mainly women and children, and wounding another 50, said Daquq Mayor Amir Khodakram. He said it was not clear who carried out the airstrike and that officials have launched an investigation.

The Russian Defense Ministry blamed the strike on the U.S.-led coalition, saying it had “all the signs of a war crime.” The U.S. military in Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A burning sulfur plant south of Mosul that was torched by the Islamic State group is releasing large amounts of noxious gas into the atmosphere, draping towns in the area in toxic smoke.

The air has turned a greyish color as it mixes with smoke from earlier oil well fires set by the militants. The fumes make breathing difficult, and residents said they are suffering from coughing, headaches and nosebleeds from as far as 30 kilometers (18 miles) away.

US TRIES TO EASE TURKEY TENSIONS

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited to discuss the offensive and to try to ease Iraqi-Turkish tensions over the presence of some 500 Turkish troops at a base near Mosul. Iraq wants the troops to withdraw, and Turkey has refused.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi insisted that Mosul is an “Iraqi battle” and that Iraq does not need Turkish help. Carter had met with Turkish leaders a day earlier and had told reporters of an “agreement in principle” for Turkey to play a role in the Mosul battle.</s>KIRKUK, Iraq | Islamic State militants armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked targets in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk early Friday, in an assault that appeared aimed at diverting Iraqi security forces from a massive offensive against the IS-held city of Mosul.

At least 13 workers, including four Iranians, were killed when IS militants stormed a power plant north of Kirkuk and then blew themselves up.

Multiple explosions meanwhile rocked the city and gun battles were ongoing, said witnesses in Kirkuk, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were concerned for their safety. Much of the fighting was centered on a government compound in the city. They said the streets were largely deserted out of fear of militant snipers.

IS said its fighters targeted the provincial headquarters. The claim was carried by the IS-run Aamaq news agency and could not immediately be verified.

Local Kurdish television channel Rudaw aired footage showing black smoke rising over the city as extended bursts of automatic gunfire rang out. It quoted Kirkuk Gov. Najmadin Karim as saying that the militants had not seized any government buildings.

The fighting raged late into the afternoon, and heavy smoke billowed up from the area of the provincial headquarters, where clashes were underway, according to live footage on the local Terkmeneli TV channel. It was unclear what caused the blaze.

In the power plant attack, which took place in Dibis, a town north of Kirkuk, three IS suicide bombers stormed the facility and killed 13 workers, including four Iranians, before blowing themselves up as police arrived, said Maj. Ahmed Kader Ali, the Dibis police chief.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi condemned the Kirkuk assault, which he said killed four Iranians and wounded three others, according to the official IRNA news agency. It was not immediately clear if Iranians were targeted in other attacks.

There was no immediate word on casualties among civilians or Kurdish forces in Kirkuk city.

Kirkuk is some 170 kilometers (100 miles) from the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been waging a wide-scale offensive since Monday.

IS has in the past resorted to suicide bombings in and around Baghdad in response to battlefield losses elsewhere in the country. But the complex assault in Kirkuk more closely resembled those carried out by the Taliban in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Kirkuk is some 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul. The oil-rich city is claimed by both Iraq’s central government and the country’s Kurdish region. Kurdish forces assumed full control of Kirkuk in the summer of 2014, as Iraq’s army and police crumbled in the face of a lightning advance by IS.

Kemal Kerkuki, a senior commander of Kurdish peshmerga forces west of Kirkuk, said the town where his base is located outside the city also came under attack early Friday, but that the base was now under control.

He said IS maintains sleeper cells in Kirkuk and the surrounding villages. “We arrested one recently and he confessed,” he said, adding that the attackers may have posed as displaced civilians in order to infiltrate the city.

Kirkuk province has absorbed hundreds of thousands of displaced people since IS first overran wide stretches of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014, capturing Mosul, the country’s second largest city.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition launched a multi-pronged assault this week to retake Mosul and surrounding areas from IS. The operation is the largest undertaken by the Iraqi military since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Iraqi officials said they had advanced as far as the town of Bartella, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Mosul’s outskirts, by Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati of Iraq’s elite forces held a press conference Friday a kilometer (half a mile) away from the town and insisted the special forces had “full control.” He said special forces were clearing explosives and contending with some snipers who remained in the town. Gunfire could be heard in the distance.

Elsewhere in Iraq, the country’s top Shiite cleric called on forces taking part in the Mosul offensive to protect civilians, and for residents of Mosul, a mainly Sunni city, to cooperate with security forces.

“We stress today upon our beloved fighters, as we have before on many occasions, that they exercise the greatest degree of restraint in dealing with civilians stuck in the areas where there is fighting,” the reclusive Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said in a Friday sermon read by an aide. “Protect them and prevent any harm to them by all possible means.”

Some 3,900 people, or about 650 families, have fled Mosul and the nearby Hamdaniyah district since the operation began this week, according to Adrian Edwards of the U.N. refugee agency.

Ravina Shamdasani, of the U.N. human rights office, said it had “verified information” that IS had forced 550 people to relocate to Mosul from the nearby villages of Samalia and Najafia on Monday, part of an “apparent policy of preventing civilians from escaping to areas controlled by Iraqi security forces.”

Shamdasani reiterated concerns IS could use civilians as human shields, and said the office was investigating reports that the group had killed at least 40 civilians for suspected disloyalty. She declined to elaborate on the reports, citing “security reasons.”

Schreck reported from Irbil, Iraq. Associated Press writers Susannah George in Irbil, Ahmed Sami and Joseph Krauss in Baghdad, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Bartella, Iraq, Bassem Mroue in Beirut , Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.</s>KIRKUK, Iraq — Islamic State militants armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked targets in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk early Friday, in an assault that appeared aimed at diverting Iraqi security forces from a massive offensive against the IS-held city of Mosul.

At least 13 workers, including four Iranians, were killed when IS militants stormed a power plant north of Kirkuk and then blew themselves up.

Multiple explosions meanwhile rocked the city and gun battles were ongoing, said witnesses in Kirkuk, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were concerned for their safety. Much of the fighting was centered on a government compound in the city. They said the streets were largely deserted out of fear of militant snipers.

IS said its fighters targeted the provincial headquarters. The claim was carried by the IS-run Aamaq news agency and could not immediately be verified.

Local Kurdish television channel Rudaw aired footage showing black smoke rising over the city as extended bursts of automatic gunfire rang out. It quoted Kirkuk Gov. Najmadin Karim as saying that the militants had not seized any government buildings.

The fighting raged late into the afternoon, and heavy smoke billowed up from the area of the provincial headquarters, where clashes were underway, according to live footage on the local Terkmeneli TV channel. It was unclear what caused the blaze.

In the power plant attack, which took place in Dibis, a town north of Kirkuk, three IS suicide bombers stormed the facility and killed 13 workers, including four Iranians, before blowing themselves up as police arrived, said Maj. Ahmed Kader Ali, the Dibis police chief.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi condemned the Kirkuk assault, which he said killed four Iranians and wounded three others, according to the official IRNA news agency. It was not immediately clear if Iranians were targeted in other attacks.

There was no immediate word on casualties among civilians or Kurdish forces in Kirkuk city.

Kirkuk is some 100 miles from the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been waging a wide-scale offensive since Monday.</s>BARTELLA, Iraq (AP) — The Iraqi army pushed into a town near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul on Saturday, a day after dozens of IS militants stormed into the northern city of Kirkuk, setting off two days of clashes and killing at least 80 people, mostly security forces.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter meanwhile met with Iraq’s prime minister and commanders in Baghdad to discuss the offensive to retake Mosul, which the U.S. is supporting with airstrikes and advisers on the ground.

The Iraqi army said the 9th Division has pushed into the town of Hamdaniyah, also known as Qaraqosh and Bakhdida, and raised the flag over its government compound, but the troops were likely still facing resistance in and around the town. Similar past announcements have often proved premature.

The town is around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mosul. Iraqi forces launched a wide-scale offensive earlier this week aimed at retaking Mosul, the country’s second largest city, which fell to IS in 2014.

Hamdaniyah is believed to be largely uninhabited. IS has heavily mined the approaches to Mosul, and Iraqi forces have had to contend with roadside bombs, snipers and suicide truck bombs as they move closer to the city.

IS said it foiled an attack on Hamdaniyah and seized vehicles and weapons left by retreating Shiite militiamen. The claim, carried by the extremist group’s Aamaq news agency, could not be confirmed.

An Iraqi television station says one of its reporters was shot dead near Mosul, the second journalist in as many days to be killed while covering the conflict.

Alsumaria TV says cameraman Ali Risan was shot in the chest by a sniper Saturday during a battle in the al-Shura area. Journalist Ahmet Haceroglu of Turkmeneli TV was shot dead by a militant sniper Friday, while covering the IS assault on Kirkuk.

Iraqi forces retook the town of Bartella, around 15 kilometers (nine miles) east of Mosul, earlier this week, but are still facing pockets of resistance in the area.

In Kirkuk, meanwhile, some fighting continued a day after the IS assault on the city, some 170 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Mosul. The wave of attacks in and around Kirkuk appeared to be an attempt to divert attention from Mosul.

Brig. Gen. Khattab Omer of the Kirkuk police said at least 80 people were killed in the assault, mainly Kurdish security forces. Another 170 were wounded, he said, adding that a sundown curfew has been imposed on the city.

Omer said Kurdish security forces recovered the bodies of 56 militants who took part in the attack. The Kurds assumed control of Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army and police crumbled in the face of a lightning IS advance across northern Iraq.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Kirkuk assault was a terrorist attack and not a military breach.

“Nearly all the terrorists who entered Kirkuk have been eliminated, and we have full control, except for maybe one area where they are being flushed out,” he said after meeting with Carter.

As the assault on Kirkuk was underway, an airstrike hit a funeral procession in the town of Daquq to the south, killing 17 people, mainly women and children, and wounding another 50, said Daquq Mayor Amir Khodakram. He said it was not clear who carried out the airstrike and that officials have launched an investigation.

The Russian Defense Ministry blamed the strike on the U.S.-led coalition, saying it had “all the signs of a war crime.” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman for the ministry, said two jets were involved in the raid, and apparently mistook the procession for a gathering of militants.

The U.S. military in Baghdad could not immediately be reached for comment.

Iraq launched a long-awaited operation on Monday aimed at retaking Mosul, its second largest city, which fell to IS in 2014. It is the largest operation undertaken by Iraqi forces since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and is expected to take weeks, if not months.

Carter’s visit comes two days after a U.S. service member was killed outside Mosul, underscoring the risk that American troops are taking as they advise Iraqi forces in the fight.

More than 4,800 U.S. troops are in Iraq and there are more than 100 U.S. special operations forces operating with Iraqi units. Hundreds more American troops are playing a support role in staging bases farther from the front lines.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a burning sulfur plant south of Mosul that was torched by the Islamic State group is releasing large amounts of noxious gas into the atmosphere, draping towns in the area in toxic smoke.

The air has turned a greyish color as it mixes with smoke from earlier oil well fires set by the militants. The fumes make breathing difficult, with residents saying they are suffering from coughing, headaches and nosebleeds from as far as 30 kilometers (18 miles) away. A small area hospital has treated some 250 people for breathing difficulties.

Two U.S. military officials said that while the fire was set two days ago, the winds shifted earlier Saturday, sending the smoke south toward Qayara West air field, a staging area for the Mosul offensive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

They said troops at the base were wearing protective masks because of the breathing concerns, and estimated it could take two to three days to put the fire out.

Matti reported from Kirkuk. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Joseph Krauss in Baghdad, Adam Schreck and Balint Szlanko in Awsaja, Iraq, Salar Salim in Irbil, Iraq, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.</s>The Iraqi city of Kirkuk has been hit by multiple attacks by ISIS fighters, sources said Friday. Images broadcast on local television showed what appeared to be dead or injured fighters on the street. The attack comes as Iraqi and Kurdish forces battle ISIS militants in Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. Oil-rich Kirkuk has been the site of previous attacks by ISIS militants. Kirkuk is 235 miles north of Baghdad.</s>IRBIL, Iraq — The Latest on the developments in Iraq where Iraqi forces and their allies launched a major offensive this week to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city from the Islamic State group (all times local):

The Islamic State group says its fighters have stormed a government compound in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The claim was carried by the IS-run Aamaq news agency early on Friday, and could not immediately be verified.

Witnesses in Kirkuk say militants attacked two police compounds early Friday and reported hearing heavy gunfire and explosions.

Live footage from the Kurdish Rudaw TV shows smoke rising from the city. The station quoted however Kirkuk Governor Najmadin Karim as saying that militants have not seized any government buildings.

Kirkuk is around 170 (100 miles) from the IS-held city of Mosul. Iraq launched a massive operation to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city, earlier this week.

The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Witnesses in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk say armed militants have attacked a local police compound and that fighting is underway.

They say multiple explosions have rocked the city so far in Friday's assault and that gunfire could be heard ringing through the city.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack comes as the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are making a major push to drive Islamic State militants from Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity as they are concerned for their safety.

Kirkuk is an oil rich city some 290 (180 miles) north of Baghdad that is claimed by both Iraq's central government and the country's Kurdish region.</s>Islamic State militants attacked several buildings in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Friday before dawn, security sources said.

The hardline militant group claimed the attacks in online statements.

Witnesses in the city said armed militants had attacked a police compound and fighting was under way. Multiple explosions and gunfire could be heard, they said.

Kirkuk is an oil rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad that is claimed by both Iraq’s central government and the country’s Kurdish region.

Crude production facilities were not targeted and power supply continued uninterrupted in the city, security sources said.

There are no reports of casualties so far.</s>IRBIL -- Militants armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked targets in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk early on Friday in an assault quickly claimed by the Islamic State group and likely aimed at diverting authorities' attention for the battle to retake IS-held Mosul.

Multiple explosions rocked the city and gun battles were underway, said witnesses in Kirkuk, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were concerned for their safety. Much of the fighting was centered on a government compound in the city.

IS said its fighters were behind the attack, which the extremist group said targeted the Iraqi government. The claim was carried by the IS-run Aamaq news agency and could not immediately be verified.

Local Kurdish television channel Rudaw aired footage showing black smoke rising over the city as extended bursts of automatic gunfire rang out. The TV, however, quoted Kirkuk Gov. Najmadin Karim as saying that the militants have not seized any government buildings.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack comes as the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are making a major push to drive Islamic State militants from Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul.

Kirkuk is an oil-rich city some 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul that is claimed by both Iraq's central government and the country's Kurdish region. It has long been a flashpoint for tension and has been the scene of multiple attacks by Islamic State militants.

Kemal Kerkuki, a senior commander of Kurdish peshmerga forces west of Kirkuk, said the town where his base is located outside the city also came under attack early on Friday. He said the base is now under control.

He said IS maintains sleeper cells in Kirkuk and the surrounding villages, and that a group of IS fighters tried to attack a power station in Dibis village west of Kirkuk with light arms and a suicide bomber.

IS also claimed an attack on the power station, saying that its fighters had stormed the facility and killed all security forces stationed there.

Kerkuki said he believes the attackers infiltrated Kirkuk posing as displaced civilians. The city has absorbed hundreds of thousands of displaced people from neighboring provinces since IS first overran wide stretches of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014.

"Many of (the displaced civilians), I'm sure they are working with ISIS," Kerkuki said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group. "We arrested one recently and he confessed (he was part of a sleeper cell)."

Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led coalition support launched a multi-pronged assault this week to retake Mosul and surrounding areas from IS. The operation is the largest undertaken by the Iraqi military since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Iraqi officials said they had advanced as far as the town of Bartella, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Mosul's outskirts, by Thursday.</s>The Latest on the developments in Iraq where Iraqi forces and their allies launched a major offensive this week to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city from the Islamic State group (all times local):

Iran's Foreign Ministry has condemned an Islamic State assault in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk and says four Iranians were killed in that attack.

The official IRNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying that another three Iranians were wounded in the assault.

IS launched a wave of coordinated attacks in an around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk early on Friday that appeared to be aimed at diverting security forces from a massive offensive underway around the IS-held city of Mosul.

The police chief in a town north of Kirkuk says IS militants attacked a power plant there, killing 11 workers, including two Iranians, before blowing themselves up. It was not immediately clear if Iranians were targeted in other attacks.

A convoy of 20 trucks has left the Turkish capital with humanitarian assistance to northern Iraq. The aid comes as Iraqi and Kurdish troops are pressing ahead with an operation to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group.

Kerem Kinik, the president of the Turkish Red Crescent, said during a send-off ceremony in Ankara on Friday that the trucks will deliver some 500 tons of aid to people fleeing the fighting in the regions of Mosul and Tal Afar. The Red Crescent says the trucks are carrying food, clothing, bedding and tents.

Kinik said his organization was also making contingency plans to help Iraqi officials deal with larger population movements, including enlarging the capacity of a camp for displaced persons.

He says that that as the Mosul battle continues, there is a "risk of a large migration wave."

Iraqi police say three Islamic State militants have stormed a power plant north of the city of Kirkuk, killing 11 workers, including two Iranians, before blowing themselves up.

Maj. Ahmed Kader Ali says the suicide bombers entered the facility early on Friday, took 10 workers hostage, and asked to be taken to the Iranians who worked there. One of the workers took them to the Iranians before escaping. The militants then killed the Iranians and the other workers, and detonated their explosive vests when police arrived.

The attack took place in the town of Dibis, to the north of Kirkuk city, where another militant assault was underway.

Kirkuk is some 170 kilometers (100 miles) from the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been waging a wide-scale offensive since Monday.

An Iraqi Kurdish TV channel says all the Islamic State militants who took part in an assault in the northern city of Kirkuk have been killed except for two who are holed up in a damaged building.

Rudaw TV says all the fighters who stormed a police compound early on Friday have been killed. It says the two remaining militants are battling Kurdish forces in a newly built hotel that was damaged in the fighting.

There was no immediate word on casualties among civilians or Kurdish forces.

The militants launched a pre-dawn assault on the city, which is around 170 kilometers (100 miles) from the IS-held city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have launched a wide-scale offensive.

The Islamic State group says its fighters have stormed a government compound in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The claim was carried by the IS-run Aamaq news agency early on Friday, and could not immediately be verified.

Witnesses in Kirkuk say militants attacked two police compounds early Friday and reported hearing heavy gunfire and explosions.

Live footage from the Kurdish Rudaw TV shows smoke rising from the city. The station quoted however Kirkuk Governor Najmadin Karim as saying that militants have not seized any government buildings.

Kirkuk is around 170 kilometers (100 miles) from the IS-held city of Mosul. Iraq launched a massive operation to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city, earlier this week.

The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Witnesses in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk say armed militants have attacked a local police compound and that fighting is underway.

They say multiple explosions have rocked the city so far in Friday's assault and that gunfire could be heard ringing through the city.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack comes as the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are making a major push to drive Islamic State militants from Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity as they are concerned for their safety.

Kirkuk is an oil rich city some 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad that is claimed by both Iraq's central government and the country's Kurdish region.
ISIL militants launch attacks on government buildings, police stations, and a power station in the city of Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurdistan, killing dozens of people.