Iraqi Kurdish forces, police regain control of oil field

"Peshmerga forces and police cleared the Khabbaz (oil) field a little while ago and were able to enter it after surrounding it for hours," Brigadier General Sarhad Qader said on Saturday evening, adding that they also retook eight villages.

The ISIL militants had seized the field, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the city of Kirkuk, early on Saturday.

They had also taken 24 workers captive, who were freed later, Peshmerga Major General Westa Rasul said.

An ISIL sniper killed Peshmerga Major General Hussein Mansur during the Saturday battle, Colonel Kawa Gharib said.

Moreover, a Peshmerga major lost his life and four more fighters were injured in an explosion on Saturday.

The oilfield had been controlled by the Peshmerga forces of Iraq’s Kurdistan region since June 2014. The facility, with a maximum production capacity of 15,000 barrels per day (bpd), was producing around 10,000 bpd before the ISIL attack.

The Takfiri terrorists have captured several oilfields in Iraq and neighboring Syria. They use revenues from illegal oil sales to fund their terrorist activities.

The ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have recently succeeded in driving the terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.