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| Iraqi Kurds 'fully control Kirkuk' as army flees | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before an Islamist offensive nearby. | |
| "The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters. "No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now." | |
| Kurdish fighters are seen as a bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents who seized towns in the region this week. | |
| The fall of the city of Mosul sent shock waves across the Middle East. | |
| Led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the insurgents are believed to be planning to push further south, to the capital Baghdad and regions dominated by Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, whom they regard as "infidels". | |
| But it appears the insurgents want to avoid tangling with Iraqi Kurds in provinces bordering Nineveh province where Mosul is located, because they are a more cohesive fighting force, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Kurdish-run Irbil. | |
| A new insurgent offensive could come from the west, where they control the city of Falluja, 69km (43 miles) from Baghdad, our correspondent adds. | |
| Iraq's parliament is due to debate a call by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki for a state of emergency. | |
| ISIS in Iraq | |
| Critical test ahead for Iraq | |
| Six things that went wrong for Iraq | |
| How did Iraqi militants take over Mosul? | |
| In pictures: Iraq cities attacked | |
| Are you in the area? Are you from Kirkuk or Mosul? Have you been affected by the situation? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using 'Mosul' in the subject. | |
| Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here. | |
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