IRBIL, Iraq – The Latest on developments in Iraq (all times local):
Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the country's armed forces plan to hold a joint military drill with the Iraqi army near Kurdish territory.
The Saturday report quotes Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, spokesman for Iran's joint armed forces staff, as saying the maneuver will be held in the coming days in northwest Iran near the Iraqi Kurdistan border.
Jazayeri said the decision to have some Iraqi military units participate came during a meeting Saturday of the chiefs of Iranian armed forces.
Iran closed its borders and stopped flights to Iraqi Kurdistan airports following a Kurdish referendum of independence from Iraq on Monday.
Ahead of the vote, Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise in the same region.
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Iraq's military is preparing to take control of the international borders of the northern Kurdish region.
The preparations are part of the central government's stepped-up efforts to isolate the Kurds following their vote on independence earlier this week.
They come a day after Iraq instituted a flight ban that halted all international flights from servicing the territory's airports.
Iraqi troops now in Turkey and Iran were expected to start enforcing control over the border crossings out of the Kurdish region Saturday morning.
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