IRAQ LOOKS TO ISOLATE KURDS AFTER REFERENDUM

ERBIL: Iraq’s military prepared on Saturday to take control of the international borders of the northern Kurdish region.

The move is partof thecentral government’s stepped-up efforts to isolate the Kurds following their vote on independence earlier this week.

On Friday, Iraq instituted a flight ban that halted all international flights from servicing the territory’s airports. Iraqi troops now in Turkey and Iran are expected to start enforcing control over the border crossings in and out of the Kurdish region.

Abdul-Wahab Barzani, director of intelligence at the crossing point from the Kurdish region into Turkey, said Iraqi troops are in position on the Turkish side of the border. He said he heard they plan to setup a customs point some 15 metres away on the Turkish side.

The escalation feeds worries in the US, a close ally of both the Kurds and Baghdad, that the referendum vote could lead to violence, setting off an unpredictable chain of events.

Then on-binding referendum, in which the Kurds voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence from Iraq, will not immediately result in an independent state.

But the vote has set off alarm bell sin Baghdad, where the government has said it is determined to prevent a break-up of the country, and in Iran and Turkey, which fear the vote will fuel similar ambitions among their own significant Kurdish populations.

Are you aware of what you are doing? Only Israel supports you... An independent state is not being founded in Iraq, but a continuously bleeding wound is being opened. RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, Turkish President