Following an appeal from the White House, Turkey agreed on Saturday to pull more of its soldiers out of northern Iraq, where they have been reportedly battling the group calling itself the “Islamic State” (IS).
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The Turkish government didn’t say where the troops would move to.
US President Barack Obama called on his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday to withdraw his country’s troops out of Iraq and to “to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq”.
Ankara insisted the deployment was routine and necessary to protect the trainers, while Baghdad said it was unauthorised and protested to the Security Council.
According to the BBC Turkey’s foreign ministry has claimed a “miscommunication” with Baghdad was responsible for the deployment.
The foreign ministry statement also said there had been a “lack of communication” with Baghdad on the matter and that Ankara “would continue to coordinate with the Iraqi government over its military contribution to the country in the fight against Daesh (ISIL)”.
But Turkey has maintained that the force was part of an worldwide mission to train and equip Iraqi forces that want to retake Mosul from Islamic State militants. Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari asked the body to adopt a resolution demanding Turkey withdraw its troops immediately.
Turkish troops came under an from Islamic State forces this week in the area. Turkish armed forces said its soldiers returned fire and four had been lightly wounded in the incident.
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