The Iraqis were unable to secure the oil fields along with other areas of Iraq.

Via BAS News

Kurdish Forces known as Peshmerga have responded to accusations from Iraqi Oil Ministry about the take over of oil fields in Kirkuk and said that they did so in order to protect the oil fields from ISIS Militants.

Earlier on Friday, Reuters reported that Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said that Peshmerga forces have taken over Kirkuk and Bia Hassan oil fields and expelled the local workers from the two oil fields.

He declared the takeover ’a violation to the constitution’ and warned that it poses ’a threat to national unity.’

However, a source from Peshmerga forces told BasNews that their forces only went in to those oil fields to protect the fields from extremist groups.

“Protecting Kirkuk oil fields are Peshmerga’s responsibility, due to Iraqi Army withdrawal in the region,” the Peshmerga source said who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the source currently most of the Iraqi oil fields in the area are under the control of ISIS insurgents and they have already sold the oil to outside.

Last week local authorities told BasNews that ISIS, benefiting from a power vacuum from the area, has started selling crude oil that it extracts from the land it controls in Syria and Iraq to smugglers in order to create a treasury for its self-declared state.

“ISIS militants are selling Baiji and Tikrit oil,” the mayor of Tuz Khurmatu Shalal Abdul told BasNews.