Kurds Control Kirkuk

Members of ISIS man a checkpoint.

Anti-Sunni Kurds are now in complete control of Kirkuk, Iraq. The BBC reports on the developing situation in Iraq.

Iraq’s Kurds have long sought to incorporate Kirkuk into their autonomous region in the north.

Parts of Kirkuk province were overrun by the Sunni Islamists this week, and some of the civilians fleeing Mosul and other towns have sought refuge in the Kurdish provinces. Others streamed south along with retreating security forces to Baghdad.

The Iraqi prime minister is believed to be asking for powers to impose curfews, restrict public movements and censor the media.

But a session of the parliament in Baghdad to vote on this was postponed after only 128 MPs out of 325 attended.

Government forces slowed the insurgents’ advance on Wednesday outside Samarra, a city just 110km (68 miles) north of Baghdad.

However, according to AFP news agency’s sources, the militants have since pushed even further south, bypassing Samarra and seizing the town of Dhuluiya, 90km north-west of Baghdad.

The insurgents also control a large swathe of territory in eastern Syria, amid a campaign to set up a Sunni militant enclave straddling the border.