IS claims attack on Turkish forces in Iraq

UNITED NATIONS Turkey accused Iraq on Friday of undermining the global fight against Islamic State militants by taking its complaint about the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq to the United Nations Security Council.

Relations between Ankara and Baghdad began to unravel following Turkey’s December 4 deployment of about 150 soldiers backed by artillery and around 25 tanks to Camp Bashiqa, a base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that is controlled by IS.

IS used mortars, rockets, and vehicle bombs ahead of ground attacks during the assault, which was ultimately foiled, said Jabbar Yawar, the secretary general of the ministry responsible for Kurdish peshmerga forces.

But Turkey has insisted the added troops were needed to protect its forces from attacks by IS – a concern that gained new relevance Wednesday when IS militants attacked the camp, killing three Iraqi Sunni fighters and wounding several Turkish trainers.

Baghdad says the Turkish military presence is a violation of its sovereignty.

US officials said military leaders in both countries had deemed such steps unnecessary for now as Iraqi forces make some headway in Ramadi.

Davis said a US offer to deploy Apache helicopters to Iraq and USA advisers to assist Iraqi forces in retaking Ramadi could also affect those numbers.

The United States is accusing Turkey of sending reinforcements to a training camp in Iraq without permission from Iraq’s government.

Carter and his delegation also met USA partners in the worldwide anti-IS coalition.

One of the most powerful among them, Ketaeb Hezbollah, said on its TV channel Etejah that it was responsible for shelling the Turkish base near Bashiqa Wednesday.

“We were talking about the opportunities that will arise in the future to increase the American contribution to Iraqi success here”, Carter told reporters.

Because weather problems were restricting some air travel around Baghdad, Carter’s meetings with Iraqi leaders were scrambled a bit, but he was eventually able to helicopter in to see Abadi and Iraq Defense Minister Khaled al Obeidi.

The city, which is the capital of Anbar province, fell to Islamic State in May, dealing the biggest blow to the Iraqi government in almost a year.

Abadi expressed confidence to Carter that Iraqi troops would soon retake Ramadi from ISIS and position the Iraqi military to move on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been under ISIS control since the summer of 2014.