Iraqi forces push back Kurds

Kurdish forces handed control of disputed areas in northern and eastern Iraq back to government troops after the Iraqi army took over the city of Kirkuk on Monday. The Kurds had occupied cities outside their designated autonomous region after liberating them from ISIS in 2014 and 2015. In a referendum last month, 90 percent of Kurdish voters supported independence from Iraq, but Iraq, Turkey, and Iran all rejected the results. The Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, appear to be withdrawing back to the borders of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. Thousands of civilians returned to their homes in Kirkuk on Tuesday, having fled the earlier fighting.