Kurds claim Kirkuk city

Agence France-Presse

The text of the new constitution, which also suggested that areas within Nineveh and Diyala provinces were part of the Iraqi Kurdish region, was approved late Wednesday by 96 of the 111 MPs in the regional parliament in Arbil. The document will be put before Kurdish voters for ratification July 25, the same day that the region holds parliamentary and presidential elections.

Seven MPs walked out of Wednesday's parliamentary session and declared the vote illegal because the legislature's mandate had ended June 4.

The Kurds have long striven to expand their northern territory beyond its current three provinces to other areas.