ARBIL: Three teenage gunmen on Monday stormed the governor’s headquarters in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, opening fire and killing one employee before being shot dead, officials said.

Initial reports said two gunmen had stormed the building in Arbil in the early morning, shooting and wounding a policeman.

But as the day unfolded, the toll rose to one employee killed and several members of the security forces wounded as Kurdish security forces exchanged fire with the attackers, officials said.

“An employee was killed in the assault on the provincial headquarters,” Arbil governor Nawzad Hadi told a news conference.

The Kurdish autonomous region’s deputy police chief Farhad Mohammed said “several members of the security forces were wounded”, but did not give a specific toll.

Mohammed said the three gunmen had been “neutralised” after a four-hour exchange of fire with Kurdish security forces.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2018