Defiant Kurds shrug off risk of trade war after independence vote

ZAKHO: More than three weeks after Iraq's Kurds voted for independence, it's business as usual at the bustling Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Turkey. Ankara has threatened to impose economic sanctions on Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region to deter moves towards independence, but hundreds of trucks still cross the border each day — some with supplies for Kurdish areas, others en route to Baghdad. Closure of the border would sever a lifeline for the region in northern Iraq and step up efforts by Turkey, Iran and the Iraqi government to isolate it. But the Kurdistan Regional Government is gambling that its three main trade partners will be reluctant to impose a blockade that would put billions of dollars at risk.