Tehran: Iran said on 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 that Tehran opposes.
"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," official news agency IRNA quoted the spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, Keivan Khosravi, as saying.
Meanwhile, 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 neighbors, 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. The war games will include artillery, armored and airborne units, it said. Clashes with Iranian Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq are fairly common in the border area.