The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq. Kurdish officials say no such coercion happened. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services "to protect citizens being threatened and coerced" in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Officials later ordered an overnight curfew. Opposition to the vote simmered among the Arabs and Turkmen who live alongside the Kurds in the northern Iraqi city and there were rumors the vote would not take place in mixed areas. In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Kurds sang and danced as they flocked to polling stations. Most emerged smiling, holding up ink-marked fingers. At Sheikh Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of Kurdish fighters waited to vote at a former school. "We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades," said Talat, waiting to vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as a group of smiling women in colorful Kurdish dress emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign they had cast their ballot. Voters were asked to say 'yes' or 'no' to the question: "Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?" For Iraqi Kurds - part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago - the referendum offered a historic opportunity despite intense international pressure to call it off. Final results are expected within 72 hours. Turnout among 5.2 million eligible voters was 78 percent, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said, and vote counting had started. However, it is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region. The vote organized by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable "yes" for independence, but is not binding. By Maher Chmaytelli and Michael Georgy ERBIL/SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict.
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