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By STELLA MARTANY

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The United States inaugurated a massive new consulate compound Wednesday in Irbil, the capital of northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region.

The move highlighted Washington’s diplomatic and strategic engagement in the Kurdish region, particularly as the U.S. moves troops that had been stationed elsewhere in Iraq as part of a mission against the Islamic State group, under an agreement with the central government in Baghdad.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas joined Kurdish leaders for the inauguration of the sprawling complex — planned as the largest U.S. consulate in the world — built on a 206,000-square-meter (50-acre) site along the Irbil–Shaqlawa highway at a cost of $796 million.

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