The Pentagon has announced that the United States and its partners are scaling back their military mission in Iraq.

Heavy clashes have erupted in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region over the arrest of an opposition figure, leaving three security forces killed and 19 others wounded in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah.

Members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group have begun to lay down machine guns, sniper rifles after they ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish government.

A group of PKK fighters is set to hand over their weapons in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah on Friday.

In a significant development, the Kurdish militant group PKK has disbanded and formally renounced violence, marking the end of more than 40 years of insurgency against Turkey.

Iraq says the planned resumption of oil exports from Kurdistan has nothing to do with the US.

At least 11 Kurdish PKK militants have been “neutralized” in a cross-border operation in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.