Street battles between ISIL fighters and Kurdish forces erupted on Friday in Kirkuk after ISIL launched a series of surprise attacks in and around the city.<br /><br /> ISIL attacked several police buildings and a power station where eighteen members of the security forces were killed, a hospital official said.<br /><br /> Kurdish forces are getting reinforcements and a curfew is now in place.<br /><br /> Kirkuk lies in an oil rich region and is claimed by both the central government and the Kurds living in northern Iraq.<br /><br /> Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took control of Kirkuk in 2014, after the Iraqi army withdrew from the region, fleeing an Islamic State advance through northern and western Iraq.<br /><br /> Government soldiers and Kurdish fighters are now fighting alongside each other as they push ever nearer to the major Kurdish city of Mosul which remains under ISIL control.<br /><br /> Analysts believe the battle to take the city from ISIL will be the biggest in Iraq since it was invaded by US led forces in 2003.<br /><br /> Iraqi forces, aided by western airstrikes, say they’ve retaken several villages on the southern outskirts of Mosul.<br /><br /> They’ve also taken over a nearby sulphur factory which ISIL fighters had set fire to, releasing toxic smoke over the area.<br /><br /> Whilst few doubt the city will be re-taken by the Kurds and the Iraqi army it won’t solve who will take charge of Iraq’s second largest city.<br /><br /> And the fear is that more fighting may be around the corner.<br />
