Kurds celebrate to show support for the independence referendum in Erbil, Iraq September 25, 2017. — Reuters picERBIL, Sept 26 — Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq yesterday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict.

The vote organised by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable "yes" for independence, but is not binding. It is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.

Turnout among 5.2 million eligible voters was 78 per cent, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said, and vote-counting had started. Final results are expected within 72 hours.

Voters were asked to say 'yes' or 'no' to the question: "Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?"

For Iraqi Kurds — part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago — the referendum offered a historic opportunity despite intense international pressure to call it off.

"We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades," said Talat, waiting to vote in the regional capital, of Erbil, as a group of smiling women in colourful Kurdish dress emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign they had cast their ballots.

At Sheikh Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of Kurdish fighters waited to vote at a former school. Most emerged smiling, holding up ink-marked fingers.

In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Kurds sang and danced as they flocked to polling stations.

Opposition to the vote simmered among the Arabs and Turkmen who live alongside the Kurds in the northern Iraqi city and there were rumours the vote would not take place in mixed areas. Officials later ordered an overnight curfew.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services "to protect citizens being threatened and coerced" in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Kurdish officials said no such coercion happened.

Speaking on state television, the prime minister called the referendum "unconstitutional" and said: "The referendum took place without any international recognition ... we will not accept its result nor will the international community or any other party."

The Kurds say the vote also acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.

But with 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered across the region, mainly in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations.

President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the Kurds.

"After this, let's see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it," Erdogan said in Istanbul. "We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it's done."

The Iraqi army started "major manoeuvres" with the Turkish army at the border, the Iraqi defence ministry said, outlining coordinated measures by the two countries against the Kurds in retaliation for the referendum.

Turkey later took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters.

The US State Department said in a statement it was “deeply disappointed” the KRG decided to conduct the referendum but added that the United States’ “historic relationship” with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region would not change.

Asked about the referendum, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said yesterday: “We hope for a unified Iraq to annihilate ISIS and certainly a unified Iraq to push back on Iran.”

The referendum was held not only in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, but in areas in the north of the country where Kurdish forces have advanced against Islamic State. Those areas also have large non-Kurdish populations.

Turkey said it did not recognise the referendum and would view its outcome as null and void, adding that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the whole region.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his government was evaluating possible punitive steps regarding its border with northern Iraq and air space in response to the vote.

Erdogan said traffic was only being allowed to cross from the Turkish side of the border into Kurdish areas of Iraq.

Ankara's forces are again fighting a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey following the collapse of a peace process.

Iran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran regarded the referendum as "treason" against the Iraqi Kurds.

"Iran has blocked air traffic to this region but we are hopeful that the four neighbouring countries will block the land borders with Iraq too," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Irna.

Teheran supports Shi'ite Muslim groups that have been ruling or holding security and government positions in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum.

Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey and the referendum was not a threat to Ankara.

"The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders," he said in Erbil. "If the 'yes' vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully."

Opposition to the vote emerged among non-Kurdish populations in areas disputed by the KRG and Baghdad, mainly the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.

"Iraq is against the Kurds, so are the Turks, the Iranians, the whole Arab region and Europe. They are going to live in a cage," said Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati, a Shi'ite Turkmen and a local leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organisation paramilitary group in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk. — Reuters</s>LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranian Kurds marched in the streets to show their support for an independence referendum staged by Kurdish authorities in neighbouring Iraq, defying a show of power by Tehran which flew fighter jets over their areas.

Iranian officials and media have denounced Monday's vote as a threat to regional stability, adding to pressure from Baghdad, threats from Iran and Turkey, and international warnings that it may ignite yet more conflict in the Mideast.

Undaunted by years of official suppression of dissent, residents in a number of mainly Kurdish cities in northwestern Iran danced in circles as night fell on Monday, chanting slogans praising Kurdish nationalist movements.

Videos posted on social media showed drivers beeping their car horns in celebration and people clapping in the cities of Marivan and Baneh. Many wore masks so as not to be identified by the security forces.

About 30 million ethnic Kurds are scattered across the region but have no country of their own. With 8 to 10 million living in Iran, Tehran fears pressure for secession will grow among a minority which has a long history of struggle for its political rights.

A strong police presence tried to control the celebrating crowd. There were reports of clashes between the demonstrators and security forces in the cities of Mahabad and Sanandaj.

In Sanandaj the crowd waved the flag of Kurdistan, a banned symbol for the Kurds' desire for independence.

"This referendum will encourage Iranian Kurds to be more determined to seek their rights," said Zaribar, a Marivan resident and member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a secular armed group which launches periodic attacks in Iran.

"This referendum was not a threat to Iraq's neighbours, but it's a starting point to resolve the issues of Kurds, especially in Iran," added Zaribar, who declined to give his full name.

Tehran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday at the request of the central government in Baghdad and called for a land blockade of the autonomous region by all neighbouring countries.

The fighter jets of the Iranian army flew over western provinces of Iran as part of a military drill, including the Kurdish cities of Sardasht and Oshnavieh.

Although many Iranian Kurds would like to copy the referendum model, the road to autonomy or independence would be more difficult under the Islamic Republic's theocratic rule and its military might.

The Revolutionary Guards have put down unrest in Kurdish areas for decades, and the hardline judiciary has sentenced many activists to long jail terms or death.

Iran sent Guards Commander Qassem Soleimani to northern Iraq last week in a failed final effort to persuade the Kurdistan regional government from holding the referendum.

The result has yet to be announced but is expected to be a resounding "yes" to independence.

One Kurd from Baneh, who gave his name as Arbaba, said he was exhilarated "from the bottom of my heart for victory in the referendum". However, he was worried it would increase pressure on Iranian Kurds to prevent them from going down the same path. "The Iranian regime will militarise the Kurdish areas even more," Arbaba said.

For the Iranian state the referendum of the Kurds' demand for state of their own was a "Zionist plot" aimed at bringing instability to the region.

"This view that a wandering scattered nation would only find peace if they find a homeland, was the core philosophy for creation of Israel," wrote the Kayhan, a hardline newspaper closely associated with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian cleric Abolfazl Najafi Tehrani criticised the historic treatment of the Kurds across the region.

"Unfortunately in Iraq, Iran and Turkey, the central governments have not provided Kurds and other residents of border areas with welfare facilities and economic development they deserve," Najafi, a political activist, told Reuters from Tehran. "That is why Kurds do not want the rule of any central governments." (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; editing by David Stamp)</s>Iraqi Kurds are to vote in an independence referendum Monday in defiance of Baghdad which has warned of "measures" to defend Iraq's unity and threatened to deprive their region of lifeline oil revenues.

The non-binding vote on the Kurds' long-cherished dream of independence, initiated by veteran leader Massud Barzani, has angered not only the federal government but also neighbouring Turkey and Iran, concerned it could stoke separatist aspirations among their own sizeable Kurdish minorities.

A total of 12,072 polling stations for the more than 5.3 million registered voters were to stay open for 12 hours from 8:00 am (0500 GMT).

The stations are scattered across the three northern provinces of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk, as well as in disputed bordering zones such as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Initial results are expected to be announced 24 hours after the vote but an overwhelming "Yes" outcome is not in doubt, with Kurdish flags festooned in all the streets, on cars and outside homes across Iraqi Kurdistan.

As Barzani pledged on Sunday to go ahead with the historic referendum after having resisted a barrage of international pressure to call it off, Iraq's leader pledged to take all the "necessary measures" to protect the country's unity and his government targeted the Kurds' oil sales.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that taking the Kurds' unilateral decision to stage a referendum affected both Iraqi and regional security, and was "unconstitutional and against civil peace".

"We will take the necessary measures to preserve the unity of the country," he said, without elaborating.

Hours later, the Iraqi government at a meeting of its security cabinet called on all countries "to deal only with it on matters of oil and borders".

The Iraqi Kurds export an average 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) through a pipeline running through Turkey to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

Tehran also upped the pressure on Sunday, saying it had blocked all flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan at Baghdad's request.

Washington and many Western states had opposed the vote, saying it would hamper the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group in which cooperation between Baghdad and the Kurds has been key.

But Barzani said the Kurds' "partnership with Baghdad" since the ousted of dictator Saddam Hussein in the 2003 US-led invasion had failed and urged his people to turn out and vote.

"We expect reactions from one side or another but we are convinced that whatever the risk and the price, it's better than waiting for a dark outcome," he said.

"The referendum is not for defining borders or imposing a fait accompli. We want a dialogue with Baghdad to resolve the problems, and the dialogue can last one or two years," Barzani said of zones such as Kirkuk.</s>LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Tehran vowed on Tuesday to stand alongside Baghdad and Ankara against the outcome of an independence referendum staged by Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq, a day after thousands of Iranian Kurds marched in support of the vote.

State media also quoted an army commander as saying that new missile systems were installed on Tuesday, a day after the referendum, in western provinces that border Iraqi Kurdish areas to "firmly respond to any invasion".

Iran, Iraq and Turkey - countries with Kurdish minorities - have all denounced the referendum as a threat to the stability of a region already beset by conflict, while the United States has expressed similar disquiet.

Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stepped up the pressure as the Iraqi government ruled out talks on possible secession for Kurdish-held northern Iraq and Turkey threatened sanctions.

"The Iraqi people won't stand silent. Iran and Turkey and other regional countries won't stand silent and will stand against this abhorrent deviation," Velayati was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. "The Muslim nations will not allow the creation of a second Israel."

Velayati did not say what action Iran had in mind. However, the country's media have compared the Kurds' desire for a homeland with the 1948 creation of Israel. The Islamic republic regards the Jewish state as its greatest enemy along with the United States.

Initial referendum results indicated 72 percent of eligible voters had taken part and an overwhelming majority, possibly over 90 percent, had said "yes", Kurdish TV channel Rudaw said. Final results are expected by Wednesday.

Undaunted by years of official suppression of dissent, residents in a number of mainly Kurdish cities in northwestern Iran danced in circles as night fell on Monday, chanting slogans praising Kurdish nationalist movements.

Videos posted on social media showed drivers beeping their car horns in celebration and people clapping in the cities of Marivan and Baneh. Many wore masks so as not to be identified by the security forces.

About 30 million ethnic Kurds are scattered across the region but have no country of their own. With 8 to 10 million living in Iran, Tehran fears pressure for secession will grow among a minority which has a long history of struggle for its political rights.

A strong police presence tried to control the celebrating crowd. There were reports of clashes between the demonstrators and security forces in the cities of Mahabad and Sanandaj.

In Sanandaj the crowd waved the flag of Kurdistan, a banned symbol for the Kurds' desire for independence.

"This referendum will encourage Iranian Kurds to be more determined to seek their rights," said Zaribar, a Marivan resident and member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a secular armed group which launches periodic attacks in Iran.

"This referendum was not a threat to Iraq's neighbours, but it's a starting point to resolve the issues of Kurds, especially in Iran," added Zaribar, who declined to give his full name.

Tehran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday at the request of the central government in Baghdad and called for a land blockade of the autonomous region by all neighbouring countries.

Media gave no further details of the newly-installed missile systems. However, Iranian fighter jets flew in a show of force over western provinces of Iran as part of a military drill, including the Kurdish cities of Sardasht and Oshnavieh.

Although many Iranian Kurds would like to copy the referendum model, the road to autonomy or independence would be more difficult under the Islamic Republic's theocratic rule and its military might.

The Revolutionary Guards have put down unrest in Kurdish areas for decades, and the hardline judiciary has sentenced many activists to long jail terms or death.

Iran sent Guards Commander Qassem Soleimani to northern Iraq last week in a failed final effort to persuade the Kurdistan regional government from holding the referendum.

One Kurd from Baneh, who gave his name as Arbaba, said he was exhilarated "from the bottom of my heart for victory in the referendum". However, he was worried it would increase pressure on Iranian Kurds to prevent them from going down the same path. "The Iranian regime will militarise the Kurdish areas even more," Arbaba said.

For the Iranian state the referendum of the Kurds' demand for state of their own was a "Zionist plot" aimed at bringing instability to the region.

"This view that a wandering scattered nation would only find peace if they find a homeland, was the core philosophy for creation of Israel," wrote the Kayhan, a hardline newspaper closely associated with Supreme Leader.

Israel has backed Kurdish independence. It has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with Kurds since the 1960s, viewing the minority as a buffer against shared adversaries. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; editing by David Stamp)</s>Baghdad piled pressure on Iraq's Kurds on Wednesday, demanding they cancel their vote for independence while parliament urged the Iraqi central government to send troops to take control of vital oil fields held by Kurdish forces.

BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq: Baghdad piled pressure on Iraq's Kurds on Wednesday, demanding they cancel their overwhelming vote for independence while parliament urged the Iraqi central government to send troops to take control of vital oil fields held by Kurdish forces.

Stepping up efforts to isolate autonomous Kurdish-held northern Iraq, which backed secession in a referendum on Monday that angered neighbouring countries, Baghdad demanded that foreign governments close their diplomatic missions in the Kurdish capital, Erbil.

Final results released on Wednesday showed nearly 93 percent in favour of independence, and 7.3 percent against. More than 3.3 million people, or 72 percent of eligible voters, took part in Monday's ballot, according to the electoral commission.

The referendum has fuelled fears of a new regional conflict. A delegation from Iraq's armed forces headed to neighbouring Iran to coordinate military efforts, apparently as part of retaliatory measures taken by the government in Baghdad following the vote.

Iran and Turkey also oppose any move towards Kurdish secession and their armies have started joint exercises near their borders with Iraqi Kurdistan in recent days. Iraq and Turkey have also held joint military drills.

Foreign airlines began suspending flights to Kurdish airports after the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority said international flights to Erbil and Sulaimaniya would be suspended at 1500 GMT on Tuesday.

Kurdish authorities rejected Baghdad's demands that they should annul the referendum as a condition for dialogue and hand over control of their international airports.

Turkey, which has threatened to impose sanctions on the Kurds, said its border with northern Iraq remained open, although it may not remain so. The number of trucks passing through had however decreased.

Home to the region's largest Kurdish population, Turkey has been battling a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast and fears the referendum will inflame separatist tension at home.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who have stressed the need for Iraq's borders to remain unchanged, will meet in Ankara on Thursday.

Russia's interest in the region is growing. Oil major Rosneft is increasing investment in Kurdistan and the Kurds have been developing strong ties with Moscow.

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned Iraq and the Kurds against taking any steps that might destabilise the Middle East after the referendum,

The Kurds consider Monday's referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.

Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional, especially as it was held not only within the Kurdish region itself but also on disputed territory held by Kurds elsewhere in northern Iraq.

The United States, major European countries and neighbours Turkey and Iran strongly opposed the referendum, which they described as destabilising at a time when all sides are still fighting against Islamic State militants.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani announced on Tuesday evening that the "yes" vote had won.

The outcome has caused anger in Baghdad, where parliament, in a session boycotted by Kurdish lawmakers, asked Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send troops to the Kurdish-held region of Kirkuk to take control of its oilfields.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces took Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic region, in 2014 when the Iraqi army fled in the face of Islamic State militants who overran about a third of Iraq. The Kurds prevented Kirkuk's huge oil resources from falling into the militants' hands.

"The government has to bring back the oilfields of Kirkuk under the control of the oil ministry," the resolution backed by parliament in Baghdad said.

The area, long claimed by the Kurds, is also home to Turkmen and Arab communities, who opposed the independence vote, although the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) included the area in the referendum.

Barzani, who is KRG president, has said the vote is not binding, but meant to provide a mandate for negotiations with Baghdad and neighbouring countries over the peaceful secession of the region from Iraq.

Abadi, a moderate from Iraq's Shi'ite Arab majority, is under pressure to take punitive measures against the Kurds. Hardline Iranian-backed Shi'ite groups have already threatened to march on Kirkuk.

The Kurds were left without a state of their own when the Ottoman empire crumbled a century ago. Around 30 million are scattered in northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria and Iran.

The autonomous region they control in Iraq is the closest the Kurds have come in modern times to a state. It has flourished, largely remaining at peace while the rest of Iraq has been in a continuous state of civil war for 14 years.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, they have had to carefully balance their ambitions for full independence with the threat of a backlash from their neighbours and the reluctance of Washington to redraw borders.

In the past four years they achieved a measure of economic independence by opening a route to sell oil through pipelines to a port in Turkey. But that still leaves them at the mercy of Ankara, which draws a firm line at formal independence.

The Kurds say the referendum acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014.

Iraq's Kurds have been close allies of the United States since Washington offered them protection from Saddam in 1991. But the United States has long encouraged the Kurds to avoid unilateral steps so as not to jeopardise the stability of Iraq or antagonise Turkey.

The U.S. State Department said it was "deeply disappointed" by the decision to conduct the referendum, while the European Union regretted that the Kurds had failed to heed its call not to hold the vote.</s>Erbil/Sulaimaniya: Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict.

The vote organised by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable "yes" for independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.

Turnout among 5.2 million eligible voters was 78 percent, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said, and vote counting had started. Final results are expected within 72 hours.

Voters were asked to say yes or no to the question: "Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?"

For Iraqi Kurds - part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago - the referendum offered a historic opportunity despite intense international pressure to call it off.

"We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades," said Talat, waiting to vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as a group of smiling women, in colourful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign that they cast their ballot.

At Sheikh Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of Kurdish fighters waited to vote at a former school. Most emerged smiling, holding up ink-marked fingers.

In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Kurds sang and danced as they flocked to polling stations.

Opposition to the vote simmered among the Arabs and Turkmen who live alongside the Kurds in the northern Iraqi city and there were rumours that the vote would not take place in mixed areas. Officials later ordered an overnight curfew.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services "to protect citizens being threatened and coerced" in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Kurdish officials say no such coercion happened.

The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.

But with 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered across the region - mainly in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria - Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations.

President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the Kurds.

"After this, let`s see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it," Erdogan said in Istanbul. "We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it`s done."

The Iraqi army started "major manoeuvres" with the Turkish army at the border, the Iraqi defence ministry said, outlining coordinated measures by the two countries against the Kurds in retaliation for the referendum.

Turkey later took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters.

The U.S. State Department warned the Kurds last week that "holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilising".

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters on Monday: "We hope that it does not become a distraction and take away the focus on destroying ISIS (Islamic State) and beyond that obviously this (is) an issue for Iraq, you know, they are going to have to sort that out."

The referendum was held not only in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, but also in areas in the north of the country where Kurdish forces have advanced against Islamic State. These areas also have large non-Kurdish populations.

Turkey said it did not recognise the referendum and would view its outcome as null and void, adding that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the whole region.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his government was evaluating possible punitive steps regarding its border with northern Iraq and air space in response to the vote.

Erdogan said traffic was only being allowed to cross from the Turkish side of the border into Kurdish areas of Iraq.

Ankara`s forces are again fighting a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey following the collapse of a peace process.

Iran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said Iran regarded the referendum as "treason" against the Iraqi Kurds.

"Iran has blocked air traffic to this region but we are hopeful that the four neighbouring countries will block the land borders with Iraq too," he was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

Tehran supports Shi`ite Muslim groups who have been ruling or holding security and government positions in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum.

Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barxani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey and the referendum was not a threat to Ankara.

"The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders," he said in Erbil. "If the `Yes` vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully."

Opposition to the vote emerged among non-Kurdish populations in areas disputed by the KRG and Baghdad, mainly the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.

"Iraq is against the Kurds, so are the Turks, the Iranians, the whole Arab region and Europe. They are going to live in a cage," said Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati, a Shi`ite Turkmen and a local leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organisation paramilitary group in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk.

In Sulaimaniya, a centre for political groups opposed to Barzani, queues at polling stations were shorter than in Erbil. There were fewer billboards celebrating the referendum, reflecting resentment that a yes vote could be seen as a plebiscite for the Kurdish leader.

"I will not vote, the referendum is not good, and it could be dangerous because of the threat from Turkey and Iran," said a shop owner in Sulaimaniya, Ali Ahmed.</s>Turkey has warned Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region that “there will most certainly be a price to pay” for its insistence on holding an independence referendum later this month.

A Foreign Ministry statement released Thursday also welcomed an Iraqi parliament vote that rejected the Sept. 25 referendum as unconstitutional.

The statement said: “The (Kurdish region) should be aware that there will most certainly be a price to pay for insisting on its approach for a referendum despite all our friendly recommendations.” The statement did not elaborate. – READ MORE</s>Baghdad calls for suspension of international flights to Kurdish region after ‘Yes’ vote wins independence referendum, reports Al Jazeera.

 Kurdish regional authorities in northern Iraq are under increasing pressure after Monday’s independence referendum, as the Iraqi government calls for a suspension of international flights to airports in the Kurdish region. Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) will suspend flights to and from Erbil airport in northern Iraq from Friday, citing an Iraqi government decision to block international flights at the airport, MEA Chairman Mohammad al-Hout said by phone.

 “For now, we’re stopping. The last flight is on the 29th, until they solve the issue,” he told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. MEA’s decision comes just hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi threatened to impose an international air embargo on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) if it does not hand over control of its airports.

 The KRG’s transportation ministry rejected the Iraqi government’s ultimatum and insisted that the region’s airports will remain under the control of Kurdish authorities. On Tuesday, Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani announced that the majority of Kurdish voters supported independence in Monday’s referendum. The embargo threat is the latest in a string of retaliatory measures against the KRG’s push for independence. Domestic flights are not involved in the ultimatum and in the worst case, international travel to and from the KRG will be re-routed through Baghdad and other Iraqi airports, Abadi said.

 Baghdad last week asked foreign countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaymaniya, in KRG territory, but only Iran declared such an air embargo, halting direct flights to and from northern Iraq.

 Baghdad will also ask neighbouring countries to shut the border with Iraq’s Kurdish region if the KRG does not hand over border posts to the central government by Friday. In response, Barzani urged the world to “respect the will of millions of people” who voted in Monday’s referendum. He called on Baghdad to engage in a “serious dialogue” with the KRG.

 Despite opposition from Baghdad, Turkey and Iran, Iraqi Kurds went to the polls on Monday, with an estimated 72 percent voter turnout, according to the election commission. In a televised speech from Ankara on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to impose sanctions against the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, saying it “will be left in a lurch” and its people would go hungry.

 “If [Iraqi Kurd leader Masoud] Barzani and the Kurdish Regional Government do not go back on this mistake as soon as possible, they will go down in history with the shame of having dragged the region into an ethnic and sectarian war,” Erdogan said. The comments came as Iraqi troops joined the Turkish army for joint military exercises near Turkey’s border with northern Iraq.

 Turkey has long been northern Iraq’s main link to the outside world, but sees the referendum as a threat to its own national security, fearing it will inflame separatism among its own Kurdish population.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Iraq's Kurdish region foreign affairs minister says independence is 'inevitable'

Turkey's president has said Iraqi Kurds could go hungry as a result of the punitive measures he is considering after Monday's independence referendum.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of "treachery" for holding the vote despite international opposition.

Massoud Barzani should now "give up on this adventure", he said.

Iraq's prime minister meanwhile gave the KRG three days to hand over control of its airports or face an air embargo.

Haider al-Abadi also demanded that all border posts with Turkey, Syria and Iran be placed under Baghdad's supervision, state TV reports.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for exercises on the Turkish side of the border on Tuesday

In a televised address on Tuesday, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani urged the prime minister "not to close the door to dialogue, because it is dialogue that will solve problems".

But Mr Abadi ruled out negotiations, declaring: "We will not abandon the unity and sovereignty of Iraq."

Image copyright AFP Image caption Some 72% of the 5.2 million people eligible to vote in Kurdish-controlled areas voted

On Monday he said he would not discuss the referendum result because it had been "unconstitutional".

The results have yet to be announced, but Mr Barzani said on Tuesday his voters had chosen independence.

Kurdish leaders have said a "yes" vote will not automatically trigger a declaration of independence, but rather give them a mandate to start negotiations on secession with the central government in Baghdad and with neighbouring countries.

'Sabre-rattling for domestic audience'

By Mark Lowen, Turkey correspondent, BBC News

This was the strongest rhetoric yet from President Erdogan on the Kurdish referendum. He called it a "threat to national security". Once again he threatened military or economic intervention, without elaborating.

Turkey is worried that independence might further Kurdish insurgency here and is concerned for ethnic Turkmen in the city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to be part of any future state. But there was a lot for a domestic audience - sabre-rattling to please nationalists at home.

Ankara has built a strong relationship with the Iraqi Kurds through an oil pipeline that feeds the Kurdish economy and Turkey's energy needs. And the authorities in Irbil oppose the PKK Kurdish militant group, allowing Turkish military bases in northern Iraq. Mr Erdogan warned he could close the oil valves in Turkey - but it has not yet happened.

With Turkey's notoriously abrasive president, the oratory sometimes does not actually translate into action.

In a speech on Tuesday, Mr Erdogan said he had expected "until the last moment" that Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani would postpone the vote.

"This referendum decision, which has been taken without any consultation, is treachery," he said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kexit? Iraqi Kurdistan referendum explained - by the voters themselves

"If Barzani and the Kurdish Regional Government do not go back on this mistake as soon as possible, they will go down in history with the shame of having dragged the region into an ethnic and sectarian war," he warned.

Turkey fears that the emergence of an independent Kurdish state on its border will stoke separatist feeling in its own Kurdish minority.

Mr Erdogan said Turkey might now impose sanctions to persuade Mr Barzani's administration to "give up on this adventure that can only have a dark end".

"It will be over when we close the oil taps, all [their] revenues will vanish, and they will not be able to find food when our trucks stop going to northern Iraq," he added.

Cross-border trade between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey was worth some $5bn (£3.7bn) in the first six months of 2017, according to Kurdish officials, while hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil flow daily through a pipeline from Kurdish-controlled oil fields to the Mediterranean via Turkish territory.

Iraqi soldiers also joined Turkish troops for military exercises in south-eastern Turkey on Monday, near the border with Iraq.

Iran, which also has a Kurdish minority, banned direct flights to and from the Kurdistan Region on Sunday.

The US earlier said it was "deeply disappointed" that the Kurdistan Region held the referendum, but stressed that their "historic relationship" would not change.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Celebrations continued long into the night in the disputed city of Kirkuk

The referendum was held in the three Iraqi provinces that make up the Kurdistan Region, as well as in adjoining disputed areas claimed by the Kurds and the Arab-led central government that are controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported that 72% of the 5.2 million Kurds and non-Kurds registered as resident in those areas had voted. Ballots were still being counted on Tuesday, with initial results expected by the end of the day.

Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

In Iraq, where they make up an estimated 15% to 20% of the population of 37 million, Kurds faced decades of repression before acquiring autonomy in 1991.</s>ERBIL: Voting began in northern Iraq yesterday in an independence referendum organized by Kurdish authorities, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from neighboring Turkey and Iran, and international warnings it may ignite yet more regional conflict. The vote, expected to deliver a comfortable “yes” for independence, is not binding.

However, it is designed to give Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil producing region with Baghdad and neighboring states. For Iraqi Kurds – the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago – the referendum offers a historic opportunity despite the intense international pressure to call it off.

“We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades,” said Talat, waiting to cast a vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as group of smiling women, in traditional colorful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign that they voted. The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their crucial contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.

But with roughly 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered over international borders across the region, Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations. The US State Department warned the KRG last week that “holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilizing.” The KRG is holding the referendum not only in the long-standing Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, but also in wider areas in the north of the country into which its forces have advanced in the fight to defeat Islamic State.

These areas also have large non-Kurdish populations. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Ankara did not recognize the referendum and would view its outcome as null and void, adding that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the whole region. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that his government was evaluating steps regarding its border gates with northern Iraq and air space in response to the vote.

Ankara would make decisions in more direct talks with the Iraqi central government after the referendum, adding that economic, political, diplomatic and military steps were being discussed, he said in an interview with Turkish broadcasters. Ankara’s forces are again fighting a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey following the collapse of a peace process.

Flight ban

 Polling stations opened their doors at 8:00 am and should close at 6:00 pm. The final results should be announced within 72 hours. The voting is open to all registered residents, Kurds and non-Kurds, in the Kurdish-held areas of northern Iraq aged 18 and over, according to the referendum commission. The commission estimates the number of eligible voters at 5.2 million, including those living abroad and who started casting electronic ballots two days ago.

Voters should tick yes or no on the ballot asking them just one question in Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and Assyrian: “do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?” Iran declared a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with autonomous region and demanded that the KRG hands over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Tehran supports Shiite groups who have been ruling or holding security and government positions in Iraq since the US-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Opposition to the vote simmered among non-Kurdish populations in areas disputed by the KRG and Baghdad, and mainly the multi-ethnic oil-rich region of Kirkuk. “Iraq is against the Kurds, so are the Turks, the Iranians, the whole Arab region and Europe.

They are going to live in a cage,” said Mohammed Mahdi Al-Bayati, a Shiite Turkmen and a local leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organization paramilitary group in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk. In Sulaimaniya, a bastion for political groups opposed to Barzani, queues in front of the polling stations were shorter than those in Erbil, and there were fewer signs and billboards celebrating the referendum, reflecting resentment that a yes vote could be seen as a plebiscite for the Kurdish leader.

“I will not vote, the referendum is not good, it could be dangerous because of the threat from Turkey and Iran,” said a shop owner of Sulaimaniya, Ali Ahmed. Despite Turkey’s threatened retaliation, it has so far kept the Kurdish oil export pipeline that crosses its territory open. After World War One, the victorious powers Britain and France carved up the Ottoman empire leaving the Kurds scattered mainly over four countries: Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.

All of them suffered persecution and were often denied the right to speak their language. Those in Iraq were uprooted under Saddam Hussein’s regime and suffered an attack using chemical weapons. Syria is embroiled in a devastating civil war and its Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination. – Reuters
Turkey's president has said Iraqi Kurds could go hungry as a result of the punitive measures it is considering after Monday's independence referendum.