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‘Incursion’:
Baghdad demands Turkey withdraw ‘training’ troops from northern
Iraq
Turkish
soldiers © Sertac Kayar / Reuters
RT,
4 December, 2015
The
Iraqi government has demanded that Ankara withdraw the more than 100
Turkish forces that entered Iraq with tanks and artillery for alleged
“training” of troops near Islamic State-occupied Mosul. Baghdad
stressed the unsanctioned move was a breach of its sovereignty.
The
Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement early on Saturday that the
Turkish troops were acting in violation of the country’s
sovereignty and demanded the forces withdraw immediately. “Around
one regiment armoured with tanks and artillery” has
entered the northern Nineveh area, according to the statement from
the Iraqi Prime Minister’s media office.
Haider Al-Abadi
The unauthorized presence of Turkish troops in Mosul province is a serious breach of Iraqi sovereignty http://goo.gl/AATdjr
“The
Iraqi authorities call on Turkey to respect good neighbourly
relations and to withdraw immediately from the Iraqi territory,” the
statement said, stressing that the Turkish troops entered “without
the request or authorization from the Iraqi federal
authorities,” which
is a “serious
breach of Iraqi sovereignty.”
The
foreign ministry called Turkey’s move “an
incursion,” Reuters
reported.
According
to the agency’s source, the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition was
aware of the Turkey's move.
“Turkish
soldiers have reached the Mosul Bashiqa region. They are there as
part of routine training exercises. One battalion has crossed into
the region,”
the source told Reuters without revealing the exact number of troops.
He
added that the Turkish forces are “training
Iraqi troops.”
RT
‘Hostile act:’ Iraqi PM denounces US ground forces deployment on Iraq’s territory http://on.rt.com/6ylq
However,
according to two US defense officials quoted by Reuters, Turkey’s
deployment is not part of the efforts of the US-led coalition
battling Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
On
Friday, 130 Turkish soldiers equipped with heavy weapons were
deployed at a military base on the outskirts of the city of Mosul,
which is currently held by IS, according to the Daily Sabah
newspaper.
According
to Cumhuriyet newspaper, the number of the deployed Turkish troops
amounts to at least 150.
The
town of Bashiqa is located about 10 kilometers northeast of Mosul.
©
Google Maps
Mosul,
Iraq’s second biggest city, was seized by Islamic State in June
2014 and has been fully governed by militants ever since. Moreover,
the extremist group captured large stockpiles of weapons and
ammunition that were stored in the city.
“In
the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,”
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in an interview with Iraqiya
state TV in June. “We
lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone,”
he dded.
From
Turkey's Today's Zaman
Several
hundred Turkish soldiers have been deployed to provide training for
Iraqi troops in an area near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which
is under Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) control, a
Turkish security source told Reuters on Friday.
ISIL
militants overran Mosul, a city of more than one million people, in
June 2014, but a much anticipated counter-offensive by Iraqi forces
has been repeatedly postponed because they are involved in fighting
elsewhere.
"Turkish
soldiers have reached the Mosul Bashiqa region. They are there as
part of routine training exercises. One battalion has crossed into
the region," the source said, declining to say exactly how many
soldiers had been deployed.
He
said troops had already been in Iraqi Kurdistan and had moved to
Mosul accompanied by armoured vehicles, in a move of which coalition
countries targeting ISIL are aware....
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