Security forces end attack on Erbil governorate by suspected Daesh terrorists

Kurdish security forces killed gunmen who had stormed a government building in the Kurdish city of Erbil on Monday in an attack suspected of being carried out by Daesh, security officials said.

Armed with pistols, AK-47 rifles and hand grenades, the assailants shot their way into the building from the main gate and a side entrance. According to preliminary investigations, one government employee was killed. Two policemen were wounded.

The gunmen approached the entrance of the building shortly before 8 a.m. and opened fire, Erbil deputy governor Tahir Abdullah told Reuters.

The men seized the third floor and took an unspecified number of hostages. Two of them carried out suicide bombings.

Hand grenades were hurled at security forces. Snipers took up positions on a nearby building in Erbil's busy commercial district and opened fire at the militants.

"We believe that the attackers are from Daesh because of the tactics they used in breaking into the building from the main gate. Two gunmen used pistols to shoot at the guards," said a security official.

Iraq announced in December that it had defeated Daesh. But the group still carries out attacks in parts of Iraq, an OPEC oil producer and close ally of the United States.

Such high-profile attacks are rare in Erbil, seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq was already facing difficulties before Monday's dramatic attack.

Kurdish security forces said the gunmen, who were speaking Kurdish, asked the women to leave and kept the men inside.

Daesh has in the past established units composed solely of Kurdish militants who fought in both Iraq and Syria