MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Baghdad should send additional security forces to the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk to forestall an attack planned by the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) terrorist organization, Iraqi Turkmen politician Arshad Salihi said Wednesday.
"We received highly accurate security information which states that the Islamic State is planning to launch an attack on Kirkuk similar to the attack that took place in November… The military should be sent to the region immediately," Salihi, the leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, a movement representing Iraq's Turkmen population, was quoted as saying by Alsumaria news outlet.
On October 22, the Islamic State militants attacked the city of Kirkuk, possibly in an attempt to divert the attention of the government forces who, since the beginning of October, have been carrying out a major military operation to liberate Mosul, Iraq's second's largest city, from the IS, an extremist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.
