Turkey rejects Kurdish independence, wants Iraq unity government, officials say

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey opposes independence for a Kurdish state in northern Iraq and wants a unity government in Baghdad to counter the threat by Islamist Sunni rebels who have seized large swathes of territory in recent weeks, Turkish officials said.

Iraqi Kurds have benefited from the recent turmoil sweeping the country by occupying territory abandoned by government forces fleeing the advance of Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which took Iraq's second city Mosul earlier this month.