IRBIL, IRAQ—The Iraqi government escalated its confrontation with its northern Kurdish region on Wednesday, threatening to send troops and seize oilfields there and taking steps to shut down international flights to and from the region.

The moves came in retaliation for a referendum on Monday in which the region, Iraqi Kurdistan, voted decisively to seek independence from Iraq. Kurdish officials announced Wednesday that nearly 93 per cent of voters approved the referendum, which aims to create an independent state for the Kurds, an ethnic minority in Iraq.

Iraq’s Parliament asked the country’s prime minister on Wednesday to deploy troops to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, one of several disputed areas held by Kurdish troops but claimed by Baghdad, and to take control of all oilfields in the Kurdish region.

A decision to send troops would be up to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He gave no public indication of his intentions on Wednesday, except to say he wanted “no fighting among the people of the country.”

He also sent a delegation from the Iraqi military to Iran to “co-ordinate military efforts,” a military statement said.

Iraq has called the vote illegal and has vowed to ignore the results. The vote has also provoked the Kurdish region’s two powerful neighbours, Turkey and Iran.

All three countries have been conducting military exercises near the border of Iraqi Kurdistan this week.

Iraqi Kurds voted Monday in a landmark referendum on supporting independence. U.S., Iran and Turkey are among the countries opposing the move, saying it will make the region unstable.

Iraqi troops, including Shiite Muslim militias incorporated into Iraq’s armed forces, are already in the Kirkuk area. While the city is controlled by Kurdish forces, Iraqi troops are fighting Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) as part of an U.S.-led coalition about 65 kilometres southwest of the city.

Kurdish troops, known as Peshmerga, seized Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army fled an assault by militants there.

The inclusion of Kirkuk and other disputed areas in the referendum enraged the Iraqi government, which interpreted the move as a land grab. Baghdad has accused the Kurds of illegally selling Iraqi oil from the Kirkuk oilfields through a pipeline that runs into Turkey.

The Kurdish independence challenge is the latest crisis to rock Iraq in recent years. The country was controlled by Saddam Hussein’s regime until 2003, when the U.S. invasion helped set off a brutal civil war and years of wrenching upheaval.

Just three years ago, Iraq lost a third of its territory to Daesh militants. Now that Daesh is finally being driven out, Iraq is faced with losing a third of its territory and access to areas with oil and natural gas if Kurdistan breaks away.

Beyond the threats of military action, Iraqi authorities have struggled to come up with any meaningful punishment for the Kurds for carrying out the referendum. But with its move to shut down flights to the landlocked region, Iraq seems to have found a weak point.

Iraqi aviation authorities notified foreign airlines on Wednesday that it would cancel all permits to land and take off from two international airports in the Kurdish region as of Friday afternoon. The action followed an ultimatum by al-Abadi on Tuesday for Kurdistan to surrender control of its two international airports or face a shutdown of international flights.

The Kurdish Regional Government said Wednesday that it would refuse to hand over the airports. The region’s transportation minister, Mawlud Murad, called the Iraqi ultimatum “political and illegal.” He said the airports were critical to the U.S.-led coalition’s fight against Daesh militants.

Kurdish officials had planned to send a delegation to Baghdad on Wednesday to discuss the issue, but the offer was rebuffed.

On Wednesday night, Murad said that the Kurdish government had agreed to hold talks with Iraq about placing Iraqi government observers at its airports.

There was no immediate public response from the Iraqi government, but al-Abadi, speaking to Parliament earlier, said Iraq would not negotiate with the Kurds unless they annulled the results of the vote.

He said he had warned the Kurds “of the consequences of the crisis with Kurdistan.”

“The preservation of the security of the citizens of the country is our priority,” he added.

At least six airlines — three Turkish companies, the Lebanese carrier Middle East Airlines, Royal Jordanian and EgyptAir — started notifying passengers on Wednesday that they were cancelling regularly scheduled flights from the airports in Irbil and Sulaimaniya.

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Baghdad can make good on its threat because the Iraqi civil aviation authority oversees all airports in the country, including the two international airports in the Kurdish region.

The threat to cancel landing and takeoff permits would force international airlines to cancel flights to those airports because insurance risks would be too high, according to Robert W. Mann Jr., a former airline executive who is now an industry consultant.

“The issue turns on which entity controls Kurdish region airspace and airports,” Mann said. “Unless and until the autonomous region is given that control, Iraq controls and can ban, blockade or embargo air service to airports under its control, much as Qatari airports have been embargoed or blockaded by nearby nations. Faced with such a restriction, most commercial airlines would comply, in part due to warnings by their insurers.”

The Turkish Consulate in Irbil said that Turkish airlines were working to increase their seat capacity in an effort to get all passengers out of the Kurdish areas before the flight ban takes effect on Friday afternoon.

Without international flights, getting in or out of Kurdistan would require going through Turkey, Iran, Syria or Iraq, where there are also threats of a blockade.

The Iraqi Parliament urged the government on Wednesday to close off its land border with Kurdistan.

For years, the Kurdish authorities in Irbil have controlled their own borders with Turkey and Syria. Al-Abadi has demanded that all borders return to full Iraqi central government control by Friday.

Turkey’s customs minister, in remarks carried by Turkish state television, said that the main land border crossing between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish region remained open, although he would not say for how long that would remain the case.

Turkey is the largest trade partner with Iraqi Kurdistan and the road border is used for much of the cargo trade. Turkey also is the transit country for the oil pumped out of areas controlled by Kurdish authorities to the world market.

Turkey and Iran have opposed the referendum and any moves toward Kurdish independence, fearing unrest by their own Kurdish minorities.

Kurdish authorities in Irbil announced on Wednesday that 92.7 per cent of those who went to the polls on Monday had voted for Kurdish leaders to seek independence.

About 72 per cent of 4.6 million registered voters cast ballots, with about 2.9 million voting yes to independence and about 224,000 voting no, the Kurdish Independent High Electoral Referendum Commission reported.

The referendum does not automatically trigger a declaration of independence, but sets in motion a series of moves toward the establishment of a Kurdish state. The most important one of those may be negotiations of a separation with Iraq, which Iraq has refused.

U.S. officials opposed the vote because they feared it would destabilize Iraq, stir ethnic conflict and undermine the U.S.-led coalition.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have played a central role in the coalition’s operations against Daesh militants, fighting alongside Iraqi army units.

The Kurdish region’s president, Massoud Barzani, pushed for the referendum in hopes of obtaining a strong public mandate for eventual independence that he could use to begin negotiations with Baghdad.

Kurds have been celebrating since Monday evening, setting off fireworks, honking horns and affixing flapping red, white and green Kurdish flags to their automobiles. Government billboards promoting Monday’s independence vote were still in place on Wednesday.

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