The governorate of Kirkuk declared an overnight curfew in the Iraqi oil city as tension simmered following a referendum on independence organised by the local Kurdish authorities but rejected by the central government in Baghdad.
The curfew was announced in statement from the Kurdish-led governorate of the northern Iraqi city.
Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzanis decision to include Kirkuk in a referendum on independence from Iraq was widely seen by the Arab and Turkmen communities as a move to consolidate Kurdish control over the multi-ethnic city.
