Iraq called on Turkey to “immediately” withdraw forces, including tanks and artillery, it has deployed in the country’s north without Baghdad’s consent, the prime minister’s office said yesterday.
“The Iraqi authorities call on Turkey to ... immediately withdraw from Iraqi territory,” the statement said.
“We have confirmation that Turkish forces, numbering about one armored regiment with a number of tanks and artillery, entered Iraqi territory ... allegedly to train Iraqi groups, without a request or authorization from Iraqi federal authorities,” it said.
The deployment “is considered a serious violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” it added.
In a separate statement aired on state TV, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the Turkish activity “an incursion” and rejected any military operation that was not coordinated with the federal government.
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 control, a Turkish security source told reporters on Friday.
Islamic State militants overran Mosul, a city of more than 1 million people, in June last year, but a much anticipated counteroffensive by Iraqi forces has been repeatedly postponed, because they are involved in fighting elsewhere.
‘TRAINING EXERCISES’
“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 armored vehicles, in a move which coalition countries targeting Islamic State were aware of.
Video released on the Web site of Turkey’s pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper showed flatbed trucks carrying armored vehicles along a road at night, describing them as a convoy accompanying the Turkish troops to Bashiqa.
A senior Kurdish military officer based on the Bashiqa front line, north of Mosul, said additional Turkish trainers had arrived at a camp in the area overnight on Thursday escorted by a Turkish protection force.
The military officer said he was not aware of the size of the force and refused to speculate.
The camp is used by a force called Hashid Watani, or national mobilization, which is made up of mainly Sunni Arab former Iraqi police and volunteers from Mosul.
It was formed by former Nineveh Province governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who is close to Turkey. There were already a small number of Turkish trainers there before this latest deployment
“Our soldiers are already in Iraq. A battalion of soldiers has gone there. Training was already being given in that region for the last two to three years. This is a part of that training,” one senior Turkish official said.
OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE
In Washington, two US defense officials on Friday said that the US was aware of Turkey’s deployment of hundreds of Turkish soldiers to northern Iraq, but that the move is not part of the US-led coalition’s activities.
Another senior Turkish official said the soldiers in the region were there to train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
Turkey has close relations with the Kurdish autonomous zone of northern Iraq, although it views Syrian Kurdish groups across the border as hostile to its interests.
“This is part of the fight against Daesh [the Islamic State],” he said, adding that there were about 20 armored vehicles accompanying them as protection.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office has said it welcomed foreign assistance, but Iraq’s government would need to approve any deployment of special operations forces anywhere in Iraq.
Al-Abadi reiterated that foreign ground combat troops were not needed in Iraq. Powerful Iraqi Shiite Muslim armed groups have pledged to fight any deployment of US forces to the country. It was unclear how they viewed the presence of Turkish soldiers.
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