Some Turkish troops pull out of Iraq camp near Mosul

Iraq had asked Turkey to withdraw its troops.

Iraq said on Sunday that it would adhere to political option to end the crisis with Turkey, stressing not to allow breaching Iraq’s sovereignty.

The transfer came after Iraq’s strong reaction to the deployment of the Turkish troops to Bashiqa, which Ankara says was aimed at training forces fighting Islamic State (IS) militants.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and President of Iraq’a northern Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani.

Some Turkish troops started leaving their camp in Iraq and moving north on Monday, a Turkish military source and a senior official said, days after Baghdad protested to the United Nations and ordered them out.

Witnesses in Dohuk province in Iraqi Kurdistan reported seeing Turkish military equipment being moved on transport trucks towards the border.

Turkey has been running a training program since March in a training camp established in Bashiqa, near Mosul, to provide training to Iraqi volunteers as part of the fight against ISIL terrorist group. Ankara subsequently halted new deployments.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu last week sent two of the most powerful men in Turkish foreign policy – foreign ministry under-secretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan – to Baghdad in a bid to settle the tensions.

Iraq said in early December hundreds of Turkish troops had arrived in its territory without its knowledge, calling it a hostile act.