INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Arbil, Iraq: Three gunmen on Monday stormed the governor's headquarters in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, opening fire and killing
one employee before being shot dead, officials said.Initial reports said two gunmen had stormed the building in Arbil in the early morning
and had shot and wounded a policeman.But as the day unfolded the toll rose to one employee killed and several members of the security forces
wounded as Kurdish security forces exchanged fire with the attackers, the officials said."An employee was killed in the assault on the
provincial headquarters," Arbil governor Nawzad Hadi told a news conference.Deputy police chief for the Kurdish autonomous region Farhad
Mohammed said "several members of the security forces were wounded", but did not give a specific toll.Mohammed said the three gunmen had
been "neutralised" after a four-hour exchange of fire with Kurdish security forces.He described the assault as a "terrorist" attack but
stopped short of blaming any particular group for storming the governor's headquarters.An AFP correspondent near the building said he heard
heavy gunfire and a loud explosion, probably from a hand grenade.Deputy governor Taher Abdullah had earlier said that Kurdish security
forces known as the Asayish had set up a security cordon and were searching the building for the assailants.There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for the attack in the usually secure Kurdish regional capital and its motives were unclear.ISIS had claimed a deadly attack
on the interior ministry in Arbil in 2015.The previous year the group was blamed for a suicide bombing that killed at least four people
outside the Arbil Provincial Council Building.Iraq declared victory over IS in December but the jihadists still hold pockets of territory
and continue to carry out deadly attacks.Kurdish peshmerga fighters took part in the battle against IS after it launched a 2014 offensive in
Iraq, seizing nearly a third of the country.
