Iraqi fighters protest Turkish troop presence

Earlier Friday, Abadi asked the Foreign Ministry to submit a complaint to the United Nations about the presence of Turkish troops near the IS-held city of Mosul.

As reported, on Monday Turkey said that hundreds of soldiers, who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, would not be withdrawn by it, despite being ordered by Baghdad to send them out within 48 hours.

Turkey says its soldiers are in Iraq at Abadi’s invitation to train Iraqi government and Kurdish fighters to take on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The latest comments indicated continuing tensions despite the Turkish prime minister’s office saying agreement had been reached in talks with Iraq to deepen security cooperation and “reorganize” military personnel at the Bashiqa camp.

In the letter, whose Arabic original was seen by Anadolu Agency, Iraq calls the presence of Turkish elements in northern Iraq a violation of the UN Charter and Iraq’s sovereignty, urging the Security Council to demand that Turkey immediately remove its forces.

Despite this, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey does not plan to withdraw its troops from Iraq and that they would continue their “training process” as agreed with Iraq. “There are no any other military forces from any other country except Turkey on Iraqi soil”. “We have no such luxury”, Erdoğan said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on December 12 that Lavrov and Jaafari had spoken by phone to discuss the “unlawful incursion”.

The crisis between the two countries sparked last Friday when reports said a Turkish training battalion equipped with armoured vehicles was deployed near the city of Mosul to train Iraqi paramilitary groups in fighting the IS group.

Erdogan’s comments came a day after he met with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani, who has long-standing ties with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

He added that the Muslim people of Turkey would not be happy with their government’s wrong approach toward neighboring states and Muslim nations, calling on Turkish officials to focus on their own country’s security and economy and to respect Islamic values as well.

Hussein Ali, a 40-year old Baghdad businessman, said troops cannot enter another state without the understanding of its authorities.