Kurds in Iraq

A terrorist has been detained for killing a Turkish consulate employee in Iraq in an armed attack last week, the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said on July 20.

Iraqi authorities took control of the main land crossing with Turkey, in the Kurdish area of Fish-Khabur, a customs official said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have frozen the results of the referendum on independence and are negotiating with Baghdad.

In a statement, the regional government says it is taking peaceful steps to prevent collisions, sega said.

Global crude prices have hit a three-week high as the conflict between Iraqi and Kurdish forces intensifies. Iraqi troops are advancing on the city of Kirkuk, reportedly seizing the region's oil fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6 percent to $52.29 per barrel, setting it on track for its highest settlement price since the end of September, according to FactSet data.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement on Friday that the United States Government does not recognize the referendum for independence held earlier in the week by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

He also urged all groups with a stake in referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan's independence to reject the use of force.

Iran will remain an eternal friend of Kurds despite their recent vote to split from Iraq, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in New York on Wednesday.

Iraqi Kurds have voted in favor of the creation of an independent state amid high tensions with the Iraqi government over the issue.
The High Elections and Referendum Commission said on Wednesday that more than 92.73 percent of voters supported the idea of Iraqi Kurdistan's independence from Baghdad.

Turkey has asked the Ankara representative of Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Omer Merani, to not return to Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sept. 26. 

"If the KDP's representative was here, we would ask him to leave the country. We have instead said 'Don't come back' because he is currently in Arbil," Çavuşoğlu said in a televised interview. 

People in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan are voting in an independence referendum, amid rising tensions and international opposition.

Polls opened at 05:00 GMT with balloting also taking place in the disputed areas between the northern city of Erbil and the capital Baghdad, as well as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, which is ethnically mixed.

The countdown has started and the clock is ticking very loudly to warn the Iraqi Kurds that their referendum vote for independence, scheduled to take place on Sept. 25, is loaded with a potential disaster not only for northern Iraq but a bigger geography spanning Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran and probably beyond.