Iraq Kurd secession bid faces major obstacles

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Kurds would face enormous challenges if they were to secede, but the threat of an independence vote amid chaos nationwide could squeeze concessions from the federal government, experts say.

Their autonomous three-province northern region ex–panded its control over a swathe of territory that Baghdad also claims when Kurdish peshmerga fighters moved in last month to areas from which Iraqi soldiers withdrew during a sweeping Sunni militant onslaught.