Iraq demands Turkish troops withdrawal

“We call on the Turkish authorities to withdraw its military force from Iraqi territories and not repeating such an incident that hurt the relations between the two neighboring countries”, Masum said.

Backed by the United States.-led coalition, the Kurdish Peshmerga army and Iraqi government forces have been preparing for an extended military campaign to recapture Mosul from the ISIS extremist group.

About 150 Turkish soldiers have been deployed near in the town of Bashiqa to train Iraqi Kurdish forces, BBC reported.

The founder of the camp, former Ninevah governor Atheel al Nujaifi, said the Turkish trainers were called in by Iraq’s Prime Minister and defence minister.

IS militants seized Mosul in June 2014, inflicting a serious defeat on Iraqi troops.

The Turkish deployment is just the latest in a series of challenges he faced over the past week that have pushed him to take a hard line on foreign forces helping Iraq against IS, which overran large parts of Iraq previous year.

US officials in Washington said they were aware of Turkey’s move, but it was not coordinated with the anti-IS coalition operating in northern Iraq. Turkey has in recent months been bombing Kurdish militant positions in northern Iraq.

Earlier in the week, Turkey sent “one armored regiment with a number of tanks and artillery” across the Iraqi border, according to a statement from the office the Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi. “They say they’re training, seems like they are”, one official told VOA on condition of anonymity.

Video released on the website of Turkey’s pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper showed flatbed trucks carrying armoured vehicles along a road at night, describing them as a convoy accompanying the Turkish troops to Bashiqa.

Daesh, a radical Sunni group, has ceased vast areas in Iraq, as well as Syria.

US officials made several statements last week on plans to send more USA troops to Iraq, prompting powerful Iraqi politicians and militias to protest against the presence of any foreign troops in Iraq without explicit permission from parliament.