Kirkuk - Four Iraqi Kurdish soldiers were killed in an
explosion in the province of Kirkuk, an area where a contentious
independence referendum is set to be held on Monday, Iraqi police
said.
Seven other Kurdish Peshmerga troops were injured in the blast that
hit their patrol car late on Saturday in Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of
the capital Baghdad, police added.
So far, there has been no claim of responsibility.
Kirkuk, an oil-rich region, is one of several disputed areas between
Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan and Baghdad.
In 2014, Kurdish forces seized Kirkuk after Iraqi troops withdrew
from the region in the face of a blitz by the Islamic State extremist
militia.
The Kurdistan government has said that Monday's referendum will cover
the territory as well as other Kurd-controlled areas in northern
Iraq including ethnically mixed Kirkuk.
Baghdad has condemned the vote as unconstitutional.
The referendum has also raised alarm of Iraq's neighbours - Turkey,
Iran and Syria - over concerns it could encourage their own Kurdish
minorities to break away. Turkey has warned it may impose sanctions
on Kurdistan over the plebiscite.
The UN has warned of the vote's "potentially destabilizing effect,"
while the US has said it could fuel regional unrest and distract
attention from ongoing campaigns to rout Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria.