Suspected IS attack on oil facility in Iraq

At least five people were killed when militants attacked a gas facility and oil field in northern Iraq on Sunday - a rare assault inside Kurdish-controlled areas of the country.

A guard and four employees died after gunmen on motorbikes opened fire and planted several bombs on the site before escaping, officials from Iraq's North Oil Company and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces said.

The nearby Bai Hassan oil field - Kirkuk's largest in the oil-rich province - was also attacked by militants who killed an engineer and sparked a major fire.

Two suicide bombers were killed at the field, a Peshmerga colonel said, adding that a third set oil tanks ablaze when he detonated explosives, while a fourth suspect is on the run.

No group claimed the attack, however the militant-linked Amaq agency, which often carries claims of Islamic State group attacks, reported the Bai Hassan assault without attributing it to IS.

Kirkuk is partly controlled by Kurdish forces as well as the Islamic State group militants.  

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost significant ground to Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes.

Last month, government forces declared victory in Fallujah after pushing out the militants during an offensive that forced tens of thousands of people to flee.

Iraqi government forces have marched towards Mosul in recent weeks in preparation of a wide scale offensive to recapture the IS-bastion.