Last plane leaves Iraqi Kurdistan as flight ban takes effect

Foreigners scrambled to leave via Erbil airport on Friday, before a halt to all international flights to and from the autonomous region took effect at 6pm (3pm GMT).

Washington has said it would be willing to facilitate talks between the Iraqi Kurdish authorities and Baghdad to calm escalating tensions over the 92 percent "yes" vote, as a top Shia cleric called for solving the crisis in an Iraqi court.

Neighbouring Turkey and Iran also strongly opposed the vote, fearing it would inflame the separatist aspirations of their own sizable Kurdish population.

Ankara has threatened a series of measures including blocking crucial oil exports from the region via Turkey.

The Kurds have condemned the flight suspension as "collective punishment".

On Friday, Iraqi Kurdistan's transport ministry sent a letter to Baghdad asking to "open negotiations" on flights but was still awaiting a reply, a ministry spokesman said.

The ban has seen people, many of them foreigners, flock to the airport in the regional capital Erbil to avoid being stranded.

An extended suspension of flights would have significant consequences for the Kurds, who have turned Erbil into a regional transport hub.

Kurds rush back

Iraqi Kurdistan is home to a large international community, most of whom enter on a visa issued by the regional authorities that is not recognised by the central government, so they cannot travel to elsewhere in Iraq.

On Friday, around 100 passengers waited eagerly for their planes in Erbil, where the information board showed the last flight out was to Vienna at 4pm with later flights cancelled.

"We were supposed to go back to Brazil next Saturday but we rescheduled our flight because of the border closing," said Isidoro Junior, a 32-year-old volunteer for an NGO providing medical assistance to Iraqis displaced by the war against the Islamic State group.

"We are a group of 16 people, so it was quite difficult to find enough seats. One of us came here at 2am to make sure... we would be able to fly out," he said.

In the region's second-largest city Sulaimaniyah, foreigners and others needing to leave sped to the airport, while Kurds who were abroad for business or tourism rushed back from abroad.

"There have been masses of people for two days," said airport spokesman Dana Mohammad Said.

"After 6pm there will be no more international flights, just internal flights," he said.

The civil aviation authority in Baghdad has said that a decision on internal flights will be made later.

Meanwhile members of an NGO gathered outside Erbil international airport to release balloons marked with peace messages.

Kurds have also used social media to share how the flights suspension has affected them using the #KurdistanBlockade hashtag.