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Clashes have been reported between Iraqi and Kurdish forces after Baghdad sent troops towards disputed areas held by the Kurds in Kirkuk province.

State TV said government forces had taken control of some areas, including oil fields, “without fighting”. But Kurdish officials denied this. An exchange of artillery fire is said to have occurred south of Kirkuk city.

The US government has said it is very concerned and urged dialogue “as the best option to defuse tensions”. Tensions between Iraq’s Arab-led central government and the autonomous Kurdistan Region intensified after people living in areas under its control voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum last month.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the referendum was unconstitutional and demanded it be annulled. The Kurdistan Regional Government insisted it was legitimate and called for dialogue. Crisis talks on Sunday failed to resolve the stand-off between the two sides.

The Iraqi government said overnight that it had launched the operation in Kirkuk to “secure bases” and “federal installations”. Kurdish officials said Iraqi troops had been advancing alongside government-backed Shia militias south of Kirkuk city and intended to take control of oil fields and an airbase.

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An investigation into last year’s deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin has revealed “gross mistakes” by German police and security services.

The report commissioned by Berlin’s state senate says police missed several chances to arrest and deport Anis Amri, a Tunisian behind the attack. It says Amri – who was a known Islamist threat – could have been held on drugs charges before the 19 December attack. He drove a lorry into the crowded market, killing 12 people.

Dozens of people were injured at Breitscheidplatz Christmas market in central Berlin. Amri was shot and killed in Italy four days after the attack.

Presenting the report on Thursday, former prosecutor Bruno Jost said that “gross mistakes were made that should never have happened”. He said that although Berlin police had been earlier tipped that Amri was a potentially violent Islamist, surveillance was only carried on weekdays.

Surveillance was dropped altogether after several weeks, with police believing that the 24-year-old Tunisian national was a small-time drug dealer.

Mr Jost added that Amri could have been held on drugs charges, but miscommunications with the prosecution service allowed him to slip through the net. “There is no mathematical certainty that Amri could have been arrested and detained, but if everything had gone well, then there would have been a real chance of detaining him and at least to get him remanded in custody for a while. “Amri was one of the suspects who was discussed at the Joint Terrorism Response Centre more often and more extensively than practically anybody else. And you can’t then act as if you have just arrested a petty thief,” Mr Jost said.

The investigation also found that police may have doctored their records, allegedly to cover up failings. German police is yet to publicly comment on the investigation’s findings.

Staff were attacked with pool balls during a disturbance at a high-security prison.

A total of 81 inmates at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire became violent, forcing staff to retreat, a source said. By 04:30 BST the disturbance was resolved with no injuries.

Ten “Tornado teams” of riot officers had been sent to the prison on Wednesday. Eighteen prisoners have since been moved to other jails.

James Treadwell, professor of criminology at Staffordshire University, said he understood there had been violence at the prison in the lead up to the disturbance. The disturbance at the maximum security jail should be “ringing alarm bells at the most senior level”, the Prison Governors Association [PGA] said.

John Attard, national officer for the group, said the trouble was symptomatic of cutbacks and changes in the Prison Service management structure. “Last year the PGA called for an independent public inquiry into the state of our prisons due to cuts… It fell on deaf ears. That call has not gone away,” he said. “I think we’ve dodged a bullet on this. They brought this under control very quickly and it’s fantastic that they’ve dealt with it.”

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British IS recruiter Sally-Anne Jones was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in Syria in June.

Jones, from Chatham in Kent, joined so-called Islamic State after converting to Islam and travelling to Syria in 2013. Her death was first reported by The Sun.

Jones had been a useful propaganda agent for IS on social media and her death would be “significant”.

Whitehall officials have declined to comment publicly. However, they have not denied the story, and US sources are confident she was killed in an unmanned drone strike in June, our correspondent added.

Jones, 48 – who had no previous military training – had been married to the jihadist Junaid Hussain, who was killed in 2015 in a drone strike. Previously a punk musician, she had been used to recruit western girls to the group and posted threatening messages to Christians in the UK.

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Thirteen people have been killed in a riot at a Mexican jail, authorities in the northern state of Nuevo Leon say.

Eight others were severely injured in the disturbance at Cadereyta prison. Local media report that 250 inmates battled security forces.

A spokesman for the state government said lethal force had been used to regain full control of the facility. It is the latest in a string of bloody clashes in Mexico’s jails, which are often dominated by drugs gangs.

Tensions also rose outside the jail, near Monterrey, as prisoners’ friends and relatives clashed with police. Many anxiously awaited news, banging on the side of vans which left the site carrying the injured.

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