US calls on Turkey to pull unauthorized forces from Iraq

The White House made the announcement on Wednesday after a telephone conversation between Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

On Saturday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it had officially filed a complaint with the UN Security Council, calling on the United Nations to ensure an immediate withdrawal of the Turkish forces from its country’s territory.

“We’re optimistic”, he said, while declining to predict how long it would need to retake the city. “It’s kind of hard to inflict support on somebody”, he said.

It also requests Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to provide an initial “strategic-level report” in 45 days on the sources of financing of IS and associated groups, including through illicit trade in oil, antiquities and other natural resources, as well as their planning and facilitation of attacks, and to provide updates every four months.

“I reemphasized to the prime minister that he knows well that everything that we do and the coalition does here in Iraq is subject to the principle of Iraqi sovereignty”, Carter later told reporters. “But we can and should do more”, they said. None of them were in life-threatening condition, the military said.

That reluctance also could hold up any move to embed USA military advisers with Iraqi Brigade headquarters. Such small advisory teams wouldn’t be on the front lines of the fighting, but would provide better planning advice and coordination for the Iraqi units, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman who noted that many Iraqis “don’t agree with the American presence in this country”.

Carter’s visit to Baghdad was hampered by a sandstorm that complicated travel for his meetings with Iraqi leaders. Called an “expeditionary targeting force”, the special operations troops would be used to increase the pressure on the insurgents.

Carter’s visit, his third stop on an end-of-year Middle East tour, comes as Iraqi forces seek to push deeper into Ramadi, the capital of the western Anbar province, which has been in the grip of Islamic State fighters since May.

Iraqi troops, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, pushed into Ramadi earlier this week, have surrounded the city and have been preparing to try to take the city back. He has publicly pressed Turkey and other coalition allies to take a more assertive role in the campaign against Islamic State.

This month, the United States announced plans to deploy an elite force to Iraq to conduct raids against Daesh there and in neighbouring Syria.