There may be a silver but risky lining for Kurdish nationalists in their devastating loss of Kirkuk and other cities on the periphery of their semi-autonomous region as they lick their wounds and vent anger over deep-seated internal divisions that facilitated the Iranian-backed Iraqi blitzkrieg.

Iraq has suspended all international flights to and from the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil, sending anxious foreigners rushing to the airport, as Baghdad cranked up the pressure on the Kurds over their independence referendum.

A US Navy Seal who was advising Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq has been killed by Islamic State (IS) militants, US defence officials say.

Syria has condemned Turkish military action against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria described it as a violation of its sovereignty.

Kurdish forces have carried out a wave of forced displacement and mass house demolitions - amounting to war crimes - in northern Syria, a rights group says.

A former Royal Marine became the first Briton to be killed while fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State in Syria, the Kurdish militia