Turkish tanks drill on Iraqi border week before Kurdish vote

FILE PHOTO:Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi delivers remarks at the morning ministerial plenary for the Global Coalition working to Defeat ISIS at the State Department in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

ANKARA/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkish tanks carried out drills at the Iraqi border on Monday, the army said, a week before a referendum across that frontier on Kurdish independence that Ankara has called a threat to its national security.

The exercises came as Turkey, the central government in Baghdad and their shared neighbour Iran all stepped up protests and warnings about the looming plebiscite in semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq.