Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday.<br /><br />Government troops had earlier fled the city after clashes with insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL.)<br /><br />Peshmerga fighters, who are the security forces in the autonomous Kurdish north, fought off the insurgents who were trying to take control of the outskirts of the city.<br /><br />A police source said 10 militants were killed and six policemen wounded by sniper fire.<br /><br />Iraqi Kurds were driven out of Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein and replaced with settlers from the south under a programme of ‘Arabisation.’<br /><br />They view the city as their historic capital and have long wanted it to be part of their autonomous region in the north.
