Kirkuk crisis escalates
Iraqi forces took control of the two largest oil fields in the disputed northern province of Kirkuk yesterday demolishing Kurdish hopes of creating a viable independent state.
The Kurds withdrew without a fight after federal government troops and militia entered the city of Kirkuk and seized the provincial governor's office and key military bases in response to a Kurdish vote for independence last month.
The fields accounted for around 250,000 barrels per day of the 650,000 bpd that the autonomous Kurdish region exported under its own auspices and their loss deals a huge blow to its already parlous finances and its dreams of economic self-sufficiency.
Iraqi forces took down the red, white, green and yellow Kurdish flags that had flown over the pumping stations of the Bai Hassan and Havana oil fields and raised the national flag.
The fields' Kurdish technicians had halted production and fled on Monday evening ahead of the entry of federal government troops and police.
Police Colonel Ahmed Modhi hailed the restoration of federal control over the two fields, which the Kurds had taken over during the chaos that followed the Islamic State group's lightning advance through northern and western Iraq in 2014.
"It's a national resource and it belongs to Iraq, just like the natural resources of the country as a whole," Modhi told AFP.
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