In the first assault, four gunmen carrying hand grenades broke through the external door of the AB2 gas compressor station at around 0300 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) on Sunday.

According to security sources, during the attack, the militants killed four staff in a control room of the facility and planted explosives charges there, five of which went off.

Two security guards, who sustained injuries in the attack, are in critical condition, the sources said.

Forces from Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism service, however, managed to regain full control of the place and freed 15 other employees who had hidden in the facility.

Later, militants used the same strategy to enter the Bai Hassan oil station, where they blew up an oil storage tank, the sources said.

Clashes are still ongoing between the militants and security forces, while the number of casualties is not immediately clear.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks so far, but The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group had previously targeted oil facilities in the region as well as oil wells at the nearby Khabbaz oilfield.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces have controlled Kirkuk and surrounding areas over the past two years.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since ISIS terrorists launched a campaign of terror in the country in June 2014.

Iraqi government forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization units, have been pushing the militants out of the country’s territory, Press TV reported.

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