Iraq threatens Turkey with United Nations action

Facing political pressure as a result of statements by American officials, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has taken an increasingly hard public line on foreign forces in Iraq, terming the deployment of ground combat forces a “hostile act”.

BAGHDAD, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday his country might turn to the United Nations security council if Turkish troops sent to northern Iraq were not withdrawn within 48 hours.

President Fuad Masum called the move a “violation of global norms, laws and Iraq’s national sovereignty”, and he said it was contributing to increased tensions in the region. He said Turkish forces had set up a camp near Mosul a year ago in co-ordination with Iraq. A much anticipated Iraqi counter-offensive has been repeatedly postponed because they are busy fighting elsewhere, reported BBC News.

KRG deputy peshmerga minister, Major-General Karaman Kemal Omar, said that the training given by Turkish soldiers made a huge contribution to an operation by Iraqi Kurdish forces to retake Sinjar district from Daesh on November 12.

IS militants seized Mosul in June 2014, inflicting a serious defeat on Iraqi troops. “One battalion has crossed into the region”, the source said.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, though, said the troops were there as part of an ongoing training mission at the request of Mosul’s governor and in coordination with Iraq’s defence ministry.

Fresh deployment of some 150 new Turkish troops at a military camp located near Mosul has strained the ties between Turkey and Iraq with Baghdad asking Ankara to withdraw them immediately.

Baghdad’s relations with Turkey had improved recently but remained strained by Ankara’s relationship with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region and differences over the Syrian civil war.

Iraq calls on Turkey to “immediately” withdraw forces, including tanks and artillery, it has deployed in the country’s north without Baghdad’s consent, the premier’s office said on Saturday.

“About 100 troops are now based in the vicinity of Mosul to provide training to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters”, Bapir added, pointing out “the estimated number of these troops could reach 3000”.

A day earlier, Davutoglu downplayed the deployment as “routine rotation activity” associated with the training effort, and as “reinforcement against security risks”.

“No further forces will be deployed to Bashiqa until concerns of the Iraqi government are overcome”.