Iraq forces seize Kirkuk outskirts in advance on Kurdish-held territory

By Maher Chmaytelli and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's central government forces launched an advance early on Monday into territory held by Kurds, seizing a swathe of countryside surrounding the oil city of Kirkuk in bold military response to a Kurdish vote last month on independence. The government said its troops had seized Kirkuk airport and had taken control of Northern Iraq's oil company from the security forces of the autonomous Kurdish region, known as Peshmerga. The military action was the most decisive step Baghdad has taken yet to rein in the independence aspirations of the Kurds, who have governed themselves as an autonomous part of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and voted on Sept. 25 to secede.

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