Iraqi forces captured several positions south of Kirkuk from Kurdish fighters on Monday in their bid to regain control of the oil-rich city, which is part of a region that declared itself independent at a referendum last month.

Iran on Sunday shut its border crossings with Iraq’s Kurdistan in support of measures taken by the Iraqi government to isolate the Kurdish region, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.

Tension flared on Saturday in the ethnically mixed Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu after a clash between Kurdish and Shi‘ite Turkmen political parties divided over the independence of the Kurdistan region, security sources said on Saturday.

Iraqi forces Friday retook positions controlled by Kurdish peshmerga fighters since 2014 in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk amid a bitter row with the Kurds over a vote for independence last month.

The Iraqi government said on Monday it would seek to impose control over Kurdistan-based mobile phone operators and move their headquarters to the capital

Iraqi forces have captured Islamic State’s last stronghold in northern Iraq, the military said on Thursday, leaving the militant group holed up in pockets of land by the Syrian border, across which its self-proclaimed “caliphate” once stretched.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday called for a "joint administration" of Kirkuk and other areas claimed by both his government and the autonomous Kurdish region, provided that Baghdad has ultimate authority in such an arrangement.

A U.S. service member from the coalition fighting Islamic State was killed and another injured in Iraq over the weekend when an improvised explosive device (IED) struck their vehicle, the Pentagon said on Monday.

raq's autonomous Kurdistan region plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Nov. 1, the Erbil-based Rudaw TV said on Tuesday, as the Kurdish leadership cements its case for independence.

Iranian and Iraqi central government forces are to hold joint military exercises near their borders, Iran’s state television reported on Saturday, as part of Tehran’s effort to support Baghdad after the Kurdish independence referendum.

Iraq plans to take control of the borders of its autonomous Kurdistan region "in coordination" with Iran and Turkey, the Iraqi Defence Ministry said on Friday.

Iraq's top Shi‘ite cleric opposes the secession of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, his representative said in a Friday sermon on his behalf, in the religious leader's first comments on the Kurds' decision to back independence in a referendum.

The United Nations has offered to help "solve the problem" between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over a Kurdish independence referendum held on Monday, the Iraqi foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has offered to hold talks with Iraq's central government about hosting Iraqi observers at KRG airports to help defuse a crisis triggered by a Kurdish independence vote, Kurdish Rudaw TV said Wednesday.

Turkey told Iraq it would deal only with the Iraqi government on crude oil exports, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday.

Baghdad heaped 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.

Iraq on Sunday executed 42 Sunni Muslim militants convicted on terrorism charges ranging from killing members of security forces to detonating car bombs.

Authorities in Kirkuk declared a curfew an hour and a half before polls closed in a Kurdish independence referendum on Monday as jubilant Kurds celebrated a vote that has raised fears of a new outburst of ethnic conflict.

Iraq on Sunday urged foreign countries to stop importing crude directly from its autonomous Kurdistan region and to restrict oil trading to the central government.

Iraqi Kurds are expected to vote for independence in a referendum on Monday that neighboring countries and Western powers fear could break up the country and stir broader regional ethnic and sectarian conflict.