Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has begun a military exercise in the northwestern Kurdish region near the Iraqi border ahead of a Kurdish independence referendum in the neighboring country.

The Guard’s website did not say how long the drill will last, only that airborne and missile units will participate in the exercise.

Iraq’s Kurds are set to vote Monday in a referendum on support for independence. The Kurds are likely to approve the referendum, but the non-binding vote is not expected to result in any formal declaration of independence.

Iran and Iraq have been close allies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Both are opposed to Kurdish independence, and Baghdad has said the referendum is unconstitutional. </s> Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has begun a military exercise in the northwestern Kurdish region near the Iraqi border ahead of a Kurdish independence referendum in the neighboring country.

The Guard's website did not say how long the drill will last, only that airborne and missile units will participate in the exercise.

Iraq's Kurds are set to vote Monday in a referendum on support for independence. The Kurds are likely to approve the referendum, but the non-binding vote is not expected to result in any formal declaration of independence.

Iran and Iraq have been close allies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Both are opposed to Kurdish independence, and Baghdad has said the referendum is unconstitutional. </s> Traditional Middle East rivals Iran and Turkey have found themselves united of late by their mutual opposition to Kurdish independence in Iraq and common interest in ending the six-year war in Syria, among other leading issues in the region.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Sunday by phone, expressing major concerns a day before voting opened in the northern Kurdish autonomous region of neighboring Iraq. Monday's referendum, in which the region's residents are largely expected to ask for full independence from Baghdad, has been met with widespread criticism from Iraq's central government, as well as from Iran and Turkey, which have battled insurgencies from their own local Kurdish populations and have taken countermeasures to quell potential instability the vote could bring.

Related: Next Middle East war? Kurdish referendum brings hope and fears of new conflict to Iraq

"The two leaders noted that not canceling the referendum will bring with it chaos to the region and they also stressed the great importance which they attach to Iraq's territorial integrity," Erdogan's office said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Turkey had already begun conducting military exercises near its border with Iraq's majority-Kurd north and even said it launched an airstrike Saturday against militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who were preparing for an attack on Turkish troops from northern Iraq, Reuters reported. Erdogan threatened Monday to cut oil trade and send Turkish troops to invade the would-be Kurdish state, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. As polls closed, Turkey and Iraq conducted "large-scale" joint military drills as a show of force, according to the Associated Press.

Shortly after, local media reported that Iran, too, may join the bilateral exercises. Iran launched its own military maneuvers Sunday to mark the 1980 invasion of Iran by the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the subsequent eight-year war, according to Press TV, the English-language affiliate of the semi-official Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting outlet. The maneuvers have reportedly featured multiple airstrikes along Iraq's border with Iran.

Iran also closed its border with Iraq's Kurdish region Sunday and halted all flights there. While the intensity of Iran's domestic Kurdish insurgency has never reached the level of Turkey's, Iran also supports majority-Shiite Muslim Iraqi militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, whose influence and movement would likely be restricted as the result of an independent Kurdish state.

These fighters proved an effective force against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) after the jihadists took over about half the country in 2014, and they even fought alongside Kurdish forces also battling ISIS. The militias are deeply opposed, however, to an Iraq divided between Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi—an ally of both the U.S. and Iran—in Baghdad and Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani in Erbil, whose only steady international support has come from Israel, further offending local actors.

These Iran-backed militias retain a presence in disputed areas such as Kirkuk, whose inclusion in Monday's referendum has made the move even more controversial. As tensions brewed in the days leading up to the referendum, Qais al-Khazali, head of the Popular Mobilization Forces unit Asaib Ahl al-Haq, spoke out against the possibility of a Kurdish state.

"The enemies of Imam Hussein raised the flag of the homosexuals in Erbil at the wishes of the Israelis," Khazali said Saturday, referencing the seventh-century Islamic figure highly revered by Shiite Muslims for his refusal to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad caliphate, which he considered unjust and illegitimate.

"We will be victorious over anyone who wants to hurt or divide Iraq," he added, in a speech excerpt provided to Newsweek by Ahmad Majidyar, director of the Middle East Institute's IranObserved Project.

Iran and Turkey have also increasingly coordinated across the border in Syria, where they back opposing sides in a conflict that's killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. Iran, along with Russia, is a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs rebels trying to overthrow him since 2011. Opposition forces, with help from the U.S. and Gulf Arab states as well, made major gains early on in the war, but Assad and his allies have since regained much of what was lost.

A series of Syrian government victories and a rise in jihadist influence among rebel groups alienated international backers from the Syrian opposition and, as the Syrian military took Aleppo late last year, Turkey was forced to come to the table and make a deal with Russia and Iran. These negotiations, based in Astana, have since produced a framework for four de-escalation zones designed to provide refuge for civilians.

As Erdogan wrapped up a trip to Moscow to discuss Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Monday that Turkey, Iran and Russia would work together to create a new de-escalation zone near the northern city of Afrin, which is under the control of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish alliance of Arabs and ethnic minorities planning their own push for greater autonomy. U.S. support for Kurds, especially in Syria, has angered Turkey, a NATO partner.

"We are now taking joint moves with Iran and Russia to establish a de-escalation zone in the area of the Syrian city of Afrin in the north of the country," Yildirim said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

Iran and Turkey have united against a third foe, Saudi Arabia. Persian Gulf rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in a proxy war throughout the region for decades. Saudi Arabia cut off relations with Iran completely early last year after Iranian demonstrators outraged by Riyadh's execution of an influential Shiite Muslim cleric stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Iran. It was when Saudi Arabia severed ties with neighboring Qatar earlier this year, however, that Turkey stepped in.

Shortly after President Donald Trump returned from an anti-Iran rally in the oil-rich kingdom, Saudi Arabia and allies Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates announced in June a total boycott of Qatar over alleged ties to both Shiite Muslim groups tied to Iran and ultraconservative Sunni Muslim groups. Qatar denied the charges, leading Turkey and Iran to defy the Saudi-led blockade to deliver aid. Turkey also held military exercises on its only foreign military base, located in Qatar. </s> TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise Sunday in its northwestern Kurdish region just ahead of Iraqi Kurds voting in an independence referendum, in a sign of Tehran's concerns over the vote.

Iran also closed its airspace Sunday to flights taking off from Iraq's Kurdish region following an Iraqi request, "due to the ineffectiveness of our political efforts and the insistence of Kurdistan authorities to hold a referendum."

Iraq's Kurds are set to vote Monday in a referendum on support for independence. The Kurds are likely to approve the referendum, but the non-binding vote is not expected to result in any formal declaration of independence.

The Guard, a paramilitary force answerable only to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on its website that airborne and missile units would take part in the exercise. State television aired footage of explosions and smoke rising as part of the drill, in the mountains of Iran's own Kurdish region.

"We are holding a drill here," Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the Guard's ground forces, said in the footage. "God willing, artillery, armored (divisions), drones and commandos will hold a well-coordinated exercise."

Turkey, which is also home to a large Kurdish minority and opposes the vote, is holding military drills near its own border with Iraq.

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the Supreme National Security Council closed Iranian airspace to the Iraqi Kurdish area at the request of the central government in Baghdad.

Iran and Iraq have been close allies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Both are opposed to Kurdish independence, and Baghdad has said the referendum is unconstitutional.

In a rare moment of agreement, Saudi Arabia has come out on the same side as its arch regional rival, Iran. It has publicly called for the vote not to move forward, citing current regional conditions and the potential for the vote to ignite a new crisis.

The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday also voiced its "deep concern" over the planned referendum, saying it runs against the constitution of Iraq and could have a negative impact on Iraq's ability to fight terrorism.

 

 Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> DUBAI/ISTANBUL: Iranian forces have launched war games in an area near the border with Iraq's Kurdistan region, Iran's state media reported on Sunday, a day before a Kurdish independence referendum in the region.

Turkey also said on Sunday its aircraft launched airstrikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq's Gara region on Saturday after spotting militants preparing to attack Turkish military outposts on the border.

Iraq's powerful neighbours, Iran and Turkey, strongly oppose the Kurdish vote as they fear could fuel separatism among their own Kurds. Iran also supports Shi'ite groups who have been ruling or holding key security and government positions in Iraq since the 2003 U.S-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has resisted calls by the United Nations, the United States and Britain to delay the referendum who fear it could further destabilize the region.

Iranian State broadcaster IRIB said military drills, part of annual events held in Iran to mark the beginning of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, are centred in the Oshnavieh border region. The war games will include artillery, armoured and airborne units, it said.

Clashes with Iranian Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq are fairly common in the border area.

On Saturday, Turkish warplanes destroyed gun positions, caves and shelters used by PKK militants, a military statement in Ankara said. Turkey's air force frequently carries out such air strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq, where its commanders are based.

Turkey's parliament voted on Saturday to extend by a year a mandate authorising the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria.

The PKK launched an insurgency in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq cautioned its citizens that there may be unrest during a referendum, especially in territories disputed between the KRG and the central government like the multi-ethnic oil-rich region of Kirkuk.

Three Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed and five wounded on Saturday when an explosive device blew up near their vehicle south Kirkuk, security sources said.

The explosion happened in Daquq, a region bordering Islamic State-held areas, the sources said.

Islamic State's ''caliphate'' effectively collapsed in July, when a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive, in which the Peshmerga took part, captured their stronghold Mosul, in northern Iraq.

The group continues to control a pocket west of Kirkuk and a stretch alongside the Syrian border and inside Syria. </s> Planes pictured on the tarmac at Arbil International Airport, in the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, on November 23, 2015 (AFP Photo/Safin HAMED)

Tehran (AFP) - Iran said Sunday it had blocked all flights to and from Iraq's Kurdistan at the request of Baghdad, a day before the autonomous region holds an independence referendum opposed by Tehran.

"At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Arbil, as well as all flights through our airspace originating from the Kurdistan region, have been stopped," said Supreme National Security Council spokesman Keivan Khosravi, according to official news agency IRNA.

The move was due to "the insistence" of Kurdistan officials in holding the referendum, Khosravi said.

He did not specify how long the ban would stay in place.

The vote was set to go ahead Monday despite opposition from Baghdad and its neighbours, including Tehran.

Iran warned last week that independence for the region would mean an end to all of border and security arrangements.

There are several regular flights from Iranian cities to the Kurdistan region.

The news comes hours after Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards began military exercises along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

Such exercises are common in the region, due to the persistent threat posed by Kurdish separatists, who regularly carry out cross-border attacks against Iranian security forces. </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> The Iraqi government gave the Kurdistan Regional Government three days to hand over control of its airports in order to avoid an international air embargo, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday, according to state TV.

The measure is meant as a retaliation against the independence referendum held by the KRG in northern Iraq on Monday.

>> Israel is right to support Kurdish independence. But it is unwise / Analysis >>

Last week, Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, in KRG territory, but only Iran declared such an air embargo, halting direct flights to Kurdistan.

Tehran has vowed to stand alongside Baghdad and Ankara against the outcome of the referendum. On Tuesday, Iranian state media quoted an army commander as saying that new missile systems have been installed in western provinces that border Iraqi Kurdish areas to "firmly respond to any invasion."

"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," Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 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.

The vote organized 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 KRG, a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.

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.

On Monday, 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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that 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."

As polls closed on Monday evening, the Iraqi army started "major maneuvers" with the Turkish army at the border, 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 </s> Irbil, Iraq (CNN) Iraqi Kurds have voted overwhelmingly in favor of declaring independence from Iraq in a historic and controversial referendum that could have wide-ranging implications for the Middle East.

More than 92% of the roughly 3 million people who cast valid ballots on Monday voted "yes" to independence, according to official results announced by the Kurdish electoral commission on Wednesday.

The outcome represents a step towards independence for the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq and areas it claims, and puts Kurdish authorities on a collision course with their counterparts in Baghdad.

The poll took place despite vehement opposition from the Iraqi government , which described the poll as unconstitutional and has authorized use of force against Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, however, says the referendum will give it a mandate for talks to secede from Iraq, although Baghdad has already ruled out such talks.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the referendum to be annulled and for the KRG to engage in dialogue as guided by the constitution. His comments come a day after he ordered the Kurds to yield control of their airports to the central government by Friday.

Several international flight operators have announced plans to cease flights to the region on Friday, including Egypt Air and Royal Jordanian Airlines. Iran previously closed its airspace last Sunday.

Nearly all neighboring regional powers objected to the referendum, warning that independence could further destabilize the region.

"Let's engage in a serious dialogue and become good neighbors," Barzani said during a televised speech.

The vote was held across the autonomous region and in disputed territories including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a flashpoint city claimed by both sides.

It comes as Kurdish forces play an instrumental role in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In helping to eliminate the terror group, Kurdish leaders appear to have expected the backing of the international community in pursuing nationalist aspirations.

But the referendum has received little support outside northern Iraq.

Both Iran and Turkey have sizable Kurdish minorities and fear the ballot might galvanize independence movements in their countries.

The United States, United Kingdom and the United Nations denounced the vote amid concerns that it could detract from the campaign against ISIS.

As voters cast their ballots Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the referendum as "illegal" and suggested Turkey could cut off oil exports from northern Iraq, depriving the KRG of a key source of revenue.

Israel is the only country in the region that supported the vote, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsing what he described as "the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state" ahead of the vote.

European Union leaders issued a statement on Wednesday calling on all parties involved to "exercise calm and restraint" and to resolve their issues through peaceful dialogue.

Numbering 30 million, Kurds make up a sizable minority in a number of Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Despite nearly a century of Kurdish nationalist movements in various countries, the Kurds have never had a nation of their own.
Iranian forces launch a military exercise near the border of Iraqi Kurdistan, hours before a Kurdish vote on independence from Iraq. Turkey is also conducting a military exercise in the region.