Iraq defence minister asks Turkey to withdraw troops

Dec 6, 2015- The Iraqi foreign ministry has summoned the Turkish ambassador to demand that Turkey withdraw troops it sent to an area near the northern city of Mosul.

The former governor went on to say that Nineveh residents “welcome any force that comes to help in the fight against Daesh and assist in the group’s expulsion from [provincial capital] Mosul”. A battalion of soldiers has gone there.

Facing major political pressure as a result of statements by American officials, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has taken an increasingly hard public line on foreign forces in Iraq over the past week, terming the deployment of ground combat forces a “hostile act”.

Turkey has trained 2,500 troops from the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and 1,250 Arab troops, and aims to increase this number to 14,000 troops, the pro-government Sabah reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

“About 100 troops are now based in the vicinity of Mosul to provide training to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters”, Bapir added, pointing out “the estimated number of these troops could reach 3000”.

Baghdad’s rebuke of Turkey comes just a day after Abadi lashed out at the Obama administration for its proposed deployment of special forces – part of an expeditionary force – to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State.

The Turkish military recently released details of a training program for Kurdish Peshmerga fighters that it has been operating in Iraq.

IS overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad a year ago, and Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes are battling to drive the jihadists back. Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdallahaan said that it was a serious mistake on the part of the Turkish government to deploy Turkish troops in Iraq without the permission of its government, ISNA reports.

Also on Sunday, Iraq’s defense minister said he had told his Turkish counterpart that Turkey had deployed forces inside northern Iraq without informing or coordinating with Baghdad, noting that they must be withdrawn.

“If we let Turkish forces get away with this and don’t do something then other forces will feel they can do the same – America, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Islamic countries”, said Hakim al-Zamili, the Head of Parliament’s Security and Defence Committee.

Turkey also has cultivated a close relationship with the Kurdish government and by most accounts, Turkey’s movement of troops into the Mosul area is only an expansion of its current presence in the autonomous Kurdish zone.