Kurds block Iraqi forces' access to Kirkuk oil fields; Iran shuts border crossings

By Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish Peshmerga fighters rejected a warning from an Iraqi paramilitary force to withdraw from a strategic junction south of Kirkuk, which controls access to some of the region's main oilfields, a Kurdish security official said on Sunday. Iran meanwhile 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. The border closing came as an Iranian military official arrived in Iraq's Kurdistan for talks on the growing crisis between the Kurdish authorities and the Iraqi government following last month's Kurdish independence referendum.

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