An unspecified number of tanks also left.
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But Sunni member of the Nineveh provincial council, Ali al-Zoubai says that the Iraqi government itself had invited the Turkish troops into the country and had made such arrangements before the news was made public.
The Bashiqa camp gives Turkey an opportunity to exercise some control of the situation if and when the Iraqi army and associated Shia militia succeed in routing Daesh from Mosul. The Turkish troops in the camp were not given combat duties and responsibilities.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Ministry said Ankara doesn’t intend to dispatch new forces to Iraq or take out the military contingent that is already in the country.
The Turkish prime minister’s office had announced on December 11 that it would “reorganize” its military personnel at the Bashiqa camp.
“During a visit to Turkey in 2014, [Iraqi PM Haider] al-Abadi demanded [the dispatch of Turkish troops] for training”, Erdogan said Friday.
But it did not specify if they were moving farther north into Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, where Ankara has forces deployed at multiple sites, or leaving altogether.
Thousands of Iraqis protested on Saturday against Ankara’s deployment of troops to a base near the northern city of Mosul, with some burning Turkish flags and threatening violence against the soldiers for what they see as a violation of sovereignty.
On Sunday, Turkey said it “reorganized” its troops and withdrew some units with a dozen armored vehicles to a location close to the Turkish border.
Officials said there were less than 1,000 Turkish troops in all of Iraq, including the Kurdish north.
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As tensions smolder between Moscow and Ankara over Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane last month, Russia labeled the Turkish deployment an “unlawful incursion”.
