An attack on a police headquarters in southern Kurdistan has killed at least 30 people and wounded 70, officials say.
Gunmen stormed the headquarters in the city of Kirkuk after a car bomb was detonated by a suicide attacker on Sunday 3 February, police said.
Witnesses said the vehicle that was detonated was painted to appear as though it was a police car, and the fighters who sought to seize the compound were dressed as policemen.
Natah Mohammed Sabr, the head of the city’s emergency services department, said the attackers were armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests and trying to force their way into the police headquarters after the turmoil caused by the car bomb.
He said the explosion damaged nearby buildings.
Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said she was receiving “conflicting reports on what exactly happened in the attack”.
“This attack took place in the directorate of police, which is in a crowded area, lots of markets around. Civilians as well as police are thought to be among the dead,” she said.
“[The attack] bear a hallmark of an al-Qaeda style attack with the type of explosives used and the coordination,” she added citing officials.
Kirkuk, is at the centre of a dispute over oil and land rights between Baghdad’s central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Kurdistan National Congress, KNK and Kurdistan Free Women’s Movement issued statements regarding the attacks against Kurdish areas of city of Aleppo, Eshrefiye on 1 February, in Syria and Kirkuk against Kurds. These organizations strongly condemned these attacks.
KNK in its statement strongly condemned the attacks against Kurdish nation in the cities of Aleppo and Kirkuk. KNK believes that these attacked were committed on the base of mentality of occupation.
KNK states; “public opinion, and international powers that have been silent in the Paris massacre and other massacres against Kurds, this time should not to be silent and they should respect the legitimate and national rights of Kurds”.
In Addition, Kurdistan Free Women’s Movement RJAK in a statement condemned the explosions in the city of Kirkuk and stated; “it is necessary that Kurds that are in a sensitive and crucial period should be aware of these attacks and should have a national and united position”.