In October 16, 2017, Iraqi forces asserted control over the Kurdish-majority city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas from the Kurds, three weeks following the independence referendum by Kurds which Baghdad deemed illegal.

A top US general however says this operation did not deteriorate security in the disputed territories.

“So for the IS numbers -- or locations first, the areas of highest concern where we still have fragments of IS or remnants of IS, mainly the Makhmur, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmatu area, there's a -- sort of a diagonal line there where we find fragments of IS,” Brigadier General Andrew Croft, the deputy commanding general for Air and the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, said.

“And we work with the Iraqi Security Forces to go after those fragments. We've done that in the last month or two,” he added. “Actually, I think the situation's gotten a lot better since October,” he said.

The US general disagreed with Kurdish officials that the Iraqi operations in October ‘caused a deterioration in the security situation’.

The general added that Iraqi forces cleared Hawija up to the Kirkuk area and then after that moved to the Euphrates River Valley. “There are still remnants of IS in that Kirkuk-to-Makhmur area, which is why we did those operations with the Iraqi Security Forces in January and February,” he said.

“So, back in February the Iraqis did three operations up in the Makhmur area, also the Hamrin Mountain area and also in the Hawija area,” he added.

“Two of those operations the Iraqi Security Forces moved on the ground to secure those locations. The third one, in the Hamrin Mountains, because the terrain is so rough, they asked for coalition air support in the Hamrin Mountains and we did some airstrikes there because it's such rough terrain and hard to access,” he said.

“So that leads me to believe that the remnants that we see are in those locations,” he concluded.

Reporter’s code: 50101