Baghdad has barred Turkish private planes from flying to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, officials said Saturday, ahead of an energy conference that Ankara's energy minister was expected to attend.

The move comes amid mounting tensions between Iraq and Turkey over a mooted pipeline that could begin pumping oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan as early as next month, infuriating Baghdad, which insists all energy sales should be via the central government.

Police in the north Iraqi city of Arbil said on Saturday they have arrested a teenage construction worker suspected of raping 14 young girls.

Tareq Nouri, the head of "asayesh" or Kurdish internal security forces in Arbil, said the accused confessed to raping the girls, all aged between six and nine, in deserted buildings or houses under construction.

Butcher Sherzad Saleh stands outside his shop in Tuz Khurmatu holding a dead chicken. He has more pressing concerns than a high-level dispute over territory.

"The army comes here, this is my job; the peshmerga come here, this is my job," says Saleh.

Representatives of Syria's Kurdish community are divided on the issue of seeking a foreign military intervention to help topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush a popular uprising.

NATO-led forces, which carried out air strikes in Libya last year after popular protests gave way to an armed uprising, were instrumental in long-time strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s fall.