Turkey withdraws troops from Iraq camp

The state-run Anadolu news agency cited sources saying a convoy containing up to 12 vehicles left the Basheeqa base and headed north.

Turkey said the 150 soldiers and up to 25 tanks were stationed at Bashiqa to protect servicemen training Iraqi volunteers to fight Daesh. Turkish troops now deployed in the camp have not been assigned combat duties.

“We are committed to the political option on the Turkish incursion, and are keen to maintain our relations with Turkey, but that sovereignty is a red line”, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said at a press conference.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has welcomed the rearrangement of Turkish troops out of Camp Bashiqa to another area in northern Iraq as “an important step to de-escalate recent tensions”, White House said in a statement Monday.

Cwhich have threatened to use force against Turkey unless it withdraws.

Meanwhile, Russia on Monday said a summit between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan pencilled in for December 15 had been cancelled, with ties between the two leaders in tatters over the downing of a Russian warplane.

The message phrased “we urge the Security Council to ask Turkey to withdraw its forces immediately and not to desecrate Iraq’s sovereignty”.

Turkish officials have said the Russian plane it shot down violated Turkish airspace and had been warned repeatedly.

But it did not specify if they were moving farther north into Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, where Ankara has forces deployed at multiple sites, or leaving altogether.

In Baghdad, Reuters reporters saw angry protesters trample on the Turkish flag and hit a caricature of Erdogan with slippers in a mark of disrespect.