Turkey deploys “training” troops in Iraq, Baghdad demands withdrawal

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi described the influx of Turkish troops and weaponry as “a serious breach of Iraqi sovereignty” and called for their immediate withdrawal.

Turkish soldiers check tanks stationed at the train station after their arrival from western Turkey, in Gaziantep, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 27, 2015.

Mosul fell to IS in June 2014 and is the group’s main hub in Iraq.

USA officials made several statements last week on plans to send more US troops to Iraq, prompting Iraqi politicians and militias to protest against the presence of any foreign troops in Iraq without explicit permission from parliament.

The Iraq government has called on Turkey to “immediately” withdraw troops and artillery it has deployed on Iraqi sovereign territory without Baghdad’s consent.

“On Thursday, another batch of the Turkish military vehicles entered the lands of the Kurdistan Region through the Ibrahim al-Khalil border crossing”, the source added on the condition of anonymity.

According to the statement, Yilmaz said the forces were sent to protect Turkish trainers, but Obeidi said they were more than the numbers required for that task.

Turkey says its forces, who were already in northern Iraq to train Arab Sunni tribesmen and police against the Islamic State, are now training peshmerga forces outside Mosul.

Rather, it is a pre-existing “training facility established to support local volunteer forces’ fight against terrorism”, set up in coordination with the Iraqi defence ministry, he said.

An Iraqi government spokesman in the north appeared to support Turkey’s interpretation, saying they had an agreement to expand the Bashiqa training operation.

Also, there is the uneasy relationship between Turkey, Iraq, and various Kurdish factions to consider.

The Turkish move may further complicate Vienna efforts to find a solution to the Syrian conflict and may drive a wedge between Baghdad and Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish administration, at a time of USA efforts to bring reconciliation and cooperation between Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad, which are at odds with each other over a number of issues.

The peshmerga forces deployed in the Bashiqa area are loyal to Barzani’s party, which has close ties to Ankara. In Iraq, the U.S.-backed government’s struggles against Islamic State leave the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries vulnerable to breakup along ethnic and sectarian lines. New troop movements now piss off the Iraqi Government.