Kurdish independence vote damages U.S. efforts to preserve unified Iraq

Women show their ink-stained fingers during Kurds independence referendum in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vote by Iraq's minority Kurds for independence is a blow to the United States, which has spent years, billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of troops trying to hold Iraq together, former U.S. officials and other policy experts said.

A diplomatic drive to forestall Monday's referendum failed to persuade Kurdish leaders, some of the United States' closest Middle Eastern allies, in what likely will be seen as fresh proof of diminishing American power, they said.