At least 30 Islamic State (IS) militants, including five suicide bombers, were killed Thursday in armed clashes and five suicide auto bomb attacks across Iraq, security source told Xinhua.
Advertisement
The Turkish military responded to the attack on the camp – used to train Iraqi anti-jihadist fighters with Turkish help – with fire of their own, the CNN-Turk and NTV channels reported, citing military sources.
But lawmakers say Baghdad – which is dominated by Shia and heavily influenced by Iran – is not distributing the US military aid set aside for the peshmerga, in an attempt to keep non-Shia factions in Iraq weak.
The military operation in Ramadi is an important test of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s ability to muster government forces against the group and of President Obama’s strategy of relying on local partners to battle a militant organization that has spawned affiliates from Libya to Afghanistan.
Details of the plan have not been disclosed, and USA officials haven’t said when they may deploy to Iraq.
Powerful Shia militia Ketaeb Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for the attack via its TV channel Etejah, but did not specify how it managed to shell a base located over 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the northernmost positions held by federal Kurdish forces and allied militiamen.
The Turkish soldiers were rushed to a hospital in Turkey’s southeastern Sirnak province, where they are in a good condition, the military added.
“I think we are on the verge of breaking the back of Daesh, I hope”, he told Carter at a Saddam Hussein-era palace where they met, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
One of the Turkish troops was seriously wounded but his life is not in danger, it added. According to a report on a Kurdish news website, the Slemani Times, over 70 Turkish soldiers went missing after the attack. The base is in an area controlled by Kurdish peshmerga forces, which repelled several attacks by ISIL on Wednesday with the help of more than 25 airstrikes from the US-led coalition.
The IS attack came days after Turkey, under intense pressure from Baghdad, was forced to pull out some of its reinforcements, which it moved to another base inside Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region.
The attack on December 16 “shows once again the importance of security measures for the contingent” in Bashiqa, the Turkish Army said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called it the “best response to those who are trying to associate terror and Islam” and said it was a “step in the right direction”.
Biden stressed that the recent deployment of Turkish forces in Iraq was done without consent of the Iraqi government.
Advertisement
Ankara maintains that it is protecting itself against the Takfiri militants in the region.
