Turkey starts military drill near Iraq ahead of Kurdish vote

Ankara: Turkey started a military drill near the border with Iraq on Monday, Turkish General Staff said in a written statement.

The drill comes just a week before the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum on September 25, which was strongly opposed by the Turkish government, Xinhua reported.

In the brief statement on its website, the Turkish Armed Forces said exercises have begun in the Silopi and Habur areas of southeastern Sanliurfa province.

The area sits to the north of the Syrian and Iraqi borders and contains the Habur border crossing, which provides the Kurdish Regional Government with its main access point to the outside world.

The statement also said the drill is part of Turkey`s anti-terror operations launched in the border region.

In a televised interview last Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said KRG`s independence referendum is "very wrong" and Turkey would not allow any moves that would threaten Iraq`s territorial integrity.

Erdogan will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in New York at the upcoming UN meetings, in a bid to discuss efforts to end the referendum.