Baghdad government

This happened after the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a US missile strike in Baghdad.

Iraq may carry out special forces operations against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in neighbouring Syria to stop them infiltrating back into Iraq, an expert close to the Baghdad government said on April 4.

Turkey will not "embark on an adventure" but it will respond if its interests are harmed amid the Sept. 25 Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) independence referendum, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said.

The United States "strongly opposes" the planned independence referendum by Iraqi Kurds and urges Iraqi Kurdish leaders to engage in negotiations with the Baghdad government instead, the U.S. State Department said on Sept 20.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan late on Sept. 19 warned of sanctions against the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) if it proceeds with its planned referendum for independence next week, Hurriyet reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan late on Sept. 19 warned of sanctions against the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) if it proceeds with its planned referendum for independence next week. 

"We have always supported" the KRG, Erdoğan told reporters in New York after his address at the U.N. General Assembly. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sept. 19 once again called on the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to cancel its planned independence referendum, warning that such a move could spark new crises in the region.

Police deployed overnight in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk to prevent any outbreak of ethnic violence ahead of an independence referendum strongly opposed by the Baghdad government, local residents said.

Just a week before the Iraqi Kurdistan Independence Referendum, the Turkish Army is organizing unexpected military exercises near the Iraqi border, daily Daily Sabah reports, referring to a statement from the Ankara Ministry of Defense.

Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has increased the loans guaranteed by future oil sales to $3 billion in new deals with trading houses and Russian state oil firm Rosneft aimed at strengthening its fiscal position as the semi-autonomous region fights Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).