Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

:: Iraq’s central government has taken over control of the main land crossing into Turkey from the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday.

Yildirim also said that Turkey had agreed to open another border gate with Iraq, as part of a route that would lead to the city of Tal Afar, some 40 kilometers west of Mosul and home to a predominantly ethnic Turkmen population.

“Habur border gate has been handed over to the central government as of this morning,” Yildirim told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament. “The current route, heading down to Kirkuk will continue. We will start to put into action another border gate through Tal Afar in the short term, in agreement with the Iraqi government.”