A Kurdish flag hangs in the Irbil International Airport, in Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Iraq's prime minister ordered the country's Kurdish region to hand over control of its airports to federal authorities or face a flight ban, a response to the Kurdish independence referendum. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
A Kurdish flag hangs in the Irbil International Airport, in Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Iraq's prime minister ordered the country's Kurdish region to hand over control of its airports to federal authorities or face a flight ban, a response to the Kurdish independence referendum. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) Credit: Khalid Mohammed

Irbil, Iraq — Kurds in northern Iraq overwhelmingly voted to secede from the country, according to results of a referendum announced on Wednesday, amid threats of military intervention from the central government and a fierce backlash by its neighbors.

Kurds celebrated in the streets of Irbil, the capital of their semiautonomous enclave, hailing the result as a landmark moment in a century-long and bloody fight for independence. Nearly 93 percent of voters approved the referendum, which was held on Monday.

The bid for autonomy has roiled Iraq’s central government, Turkey and Iran, and is shaping up to usher in a period of contentious wrangling over its implementation.

The United States, the Kurds’ closest ally, did not support the referendum, fearing instability and a disruption in the fight against the Islamic State. U.S. officials have struggled to balance their support of the Kurdish region with its close ties to Baghdad, and are trying to calm increasingly sharp rhetoric from both sides.

Kurdish election authorities said they were proud of the 72 percent turnout, calling it a powerful expression of the enthusiasm for self-rule.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iraqi lawmakers authorized Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to deploy troops to a disputed city in northern Iraq and urged legal action against Kurdish leaders as a showdown escalated over the vote. The parliament also called for the government to take control of all oil fields in the Kurdish region, one of the few sources of revenue for the landlocked enclave.

Several regional airlines said they would suspend flights to airports in the Kurdish region in a sign of Baghdad’s pressure to try to punish and isolate the Kurds.

Turkey and Iran are worried about their own restive Kurdish populations.

In Iran’s Kurdish regions, security forces arrested scores after residents held pro-referendum demonstrations on the night of Monday’s vote, according to local activists and Kurdish political leaders. Countless more were summoned for interrogation, said Loghman Ahmedi, the head of foreign relations for the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also briefed parliament on Wednesday on the government’s strategy to “confront” Kurdish independence in Iraq, local media reported.

Several regional powers have threatened to impose a raft of sanctions to forestall any further steps toward independence and force the Kurds to negotiate with Baghdad.