BAGHDAD: Iraqi government forces captured the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk on Monday, responding to a Kurdish vote on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country.

A convoy of armoured vehicles from Iraq’s elite US-trained Counter-Terrorism Force seized the city’s provincial government headquarters on Monday afternoon, less than a day after the operation began, a Reuters reporter in Kirkuk said.

A dozen armoured vehicles arrived at the building and took up positions nearby, alongside local police. They pulled down the Kurdish flag and left the Iraqi flag flying.

Neither side gave a casualty toll for the operation, but an aid organisation working in Kirkuk said several Peshmerga and members of the Iraqi forces had been killed in an overnight clash south of Kirkuk, the only serious fighting reported.

Some Kurdish civilians were fleeing the city of one million people in fear of reprisals. Crowds of ethnic Turkmen who opposed Kur­dish control of the city were celebrating. Some drove in convoys with Iraqi flags and fired shots in the air.

“This day should become a holiday, we’re so happy to have gotten rid of Barzani’s party,” said a man celebrating on a motorbike, waving the blue-and-white flag of Iraq’s Turkmen, referring to the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered that the Iraqi flag be hoisted over Kirkuk and other disputed areascla­im­ed by both the central government and the Kurds.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017