The Kirkuk Police Directorate on Thursday announced that 20 cars were stolen in the Kirkuk Province during the month of November.

In its statement, the Kirkuk police noted that nine of the stolen cars had been recovered.

Police also revealed that five people had been arrested in November after being accused of stealing cars.

Following the Oct. 16 attack and takeover of the province by Iraqi Forces and the Iranian-backed Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militias, security and stability in Kirkuk have become the main concern for the local population.

Kirkuk is an oil-rich province located in the south of the Kurdistan Region and north of Iraq. It is a multi-ethnic province with a diverse religious background made up of Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs, and Christians. Kurds account for the majority of the population.

Since mid-2014, most parts of the province have been under the protection of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces after the Iraqi army collapsed and failed to defend the area against the Islamic State (IS).

The Oct. 16 attack pushed 180,000 people, mostly Kurds, to flee from Kirkuk and other disputed territories controlled by Iraqi forces and the Shia militias to areas in the Kurdistan Region.