Turkey to stop sending soldiers to Iraq region

Regardless of whether Turkey meets Iraq’s deadline, the dispatch of somewhere between 100 and 300 Turkish troops is much less remarkable than the commitment of three regiments.

Cavusoglu said Ankara sent military forces near the city Mosul on December 3 to protect and replace Turkish soldiers already deployed there.

Separately, relations between Iraq and Turkey have plummetted since Ankara announced at the weekend it had sent troops to northern Iraq on a training mission – a move Baghdad said said was a violation of its territory.

Instead, he said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was profiting from the sale of Islamic State oil. Russia and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have deployed more warplanes and warships since Turkish aircraft shot down a Russian fighter jet last month.

However, other sources denied that any troops had been pulled out, saying such reduction in the size of soldiers may come after ongoing discussions between Ankara and Iraq’s Defense Ministry.

Russia considers the presence of Turkish forces in Iraqi territory without Baghdad’s approval illegal, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

Daesh militants overran Mosul, Iraq’s main northern city and home to around 2 million people, in June 2014.

The United States, for its part, Serwer added, will try to get Erbil and Baghdad to agree on what is expected of Turkey because Washington needs to keep partners willing to fight the Islamic State.

“We want to further and deepen our coordination with the Iraqi government in the fight against terror”, he said.

While apparently contradicting a Turkish government statement Monday, the official is actually clarifying the status of soldiers not mentioned in Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s statement: those neither in Turkey nor stationed in Mosul, but on their way there.

During a meeting with Steinmeier, Abadi stressed the “importance of stopping oil smuggling by (IS) terrorist gangs, the majority of which is smuggled via Turkey”, his office said.

Russian Federation accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of involvement in the ISIS oil trade, to which he responded that Russian Federation was in fact involved. Otherwise Iraq said it maintains the right to use all available options, including going to the UN Security Council.

According to Metin Gurcan, a security analyst, Turkey is aiming to establish a balance in the region against the Shiite alliance that includes Iran, Russia and Iraq by means of supporting Sunni Arabs and the Kurdish administration in Iraq.

Turkey’s act has sparked a strong reaction from Iran and Syria as well, with Iran warning of chaos and regional security to be threatened.