Turkish Troops on Iraqi Training Mission Moved near Mosul

A much anticipated counter-offensive by Iraqi forces has been repeatedly postponed because they are tied down in fighting elsewhere.

“Tomorrow, the period of 48 hours will end, and if there would be no withdrawal, all the options will be opened, or we will resort to the global organizations”, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier – who was in Baghdad for an official visit.

Islamic State militants overran Mosul in June 2014.

The Turkish prime minister said Turkey is ready to provide all kind of support to Iraqi national army and police force as well.

The troops, which Baghdad said had tanks and artillery, were sent to the camp in Nineveh province, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Turkish border, where Ankara’s forces have been training Sunni fighters hoping to retake Mosul from the jihadists.

In the note, al-Abadi said that Turkey’s decision was taken “without a request or authorization from Iraqi federal authorities”.

Sources in Ankara said Monday that Turkey has begun pulling out bulk of its troops from northern Iraq after Baghdad threatened to pursue the case in full capacity. A battalion of soldiers has gone there. He said the Turkish forces are training but not arming Sunni fighters.

Davutoglu on Sunday informed Haider about the military training programme in progress in Bashika, duties and activities of Turkish soldiers and current developments about the matter, Xinhua quoted the prime minister office as saying in a statement.

Powerful armed groups have pledged to fight a planned deployment of U.S. forces to the country.

An anonymous Turkish security official told Reuters news agency the troops had been in Iraqi Kurdistan and had moved to Mosul accompanied by armoured vehicles – a move that coalition countries targeting Isil were aware of. Turkey has in recent months been on bombing operations Kurdish militant positions in northern Iraq.

A Turkish soldier patrols territory in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Sirnak, near the … It remains unclear whether the remaining Turkish “training” troops will be called back.

Çavuşoğlu termed the incident provocative and said Turkey has made the necessary response to Sunday’s incident.

Turkey’s move lends more credence to the notion that its main Iraqi partner in the fight against ISIS isn’t the Iraqi government, but the semi-autonomous Kurdish regions in the country’s north, which have a history of supplying Turkey with much-needed energy.