Turkish regime says it will withdraw its troops from northern Iraq

Turkish foreign ministry said in the statement that “Turkey, in recognition of the Iraqi concerns, is continuing to move military forces from Nineveh province”. In their statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there had been “a lack of communication” with Iraq regarding the deployment of their troops.

Turkey has 48 hours to withdraw its forces from Iraq.

Baghdad also called on the Security Council to adopt a resolution, urging Turkey to end its “illegal incursion” and immediately withdraw all of its troops from the Iraqi soil. It did not say how many troops would be moved or where to.

Iraqi protesters demand the withdrawal of Turkish troops. Ankara claims the soldiers are helping Sunni Arab and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the war against IS, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria.

The crisis between the two countries sparked on December 4, when reports said a Turkish training battalion equipped with armored vehicles was deployed near the city of Mosul to train Iraqi paramilitary groups in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.

The Ankara-Baghdad spat has been an unwelcome setback to USA efforts to accelerate the fight against Islamic State extremists.

But Iraq’s government has insisted that it never invited the Turkish forces and that their presence constituted a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Turkish authorities have continuously said the troops were there as part of the fight against terrorism.

In a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama asked his counterpart to take additional steps in order to ease the tension with Baghdad.