“Turkish troops in Mosul are not there as combatants, they are trainers”, Erdogan said.
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This brings the total number of Turkish troops stationed in Mosul up to 1,200, according to the Daily Sabah.
Erdogan insisted that the troops consist of a noncombative force.
Turkey expanded its travel warning on Iraq on Wednesday to include all regions not under Kurdish control in the north.
KRG President Masoud Barzani has arrived in Ankara and met with various officials, including Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Baghdad condemned the move saying it had not asked for the help of Turkish forces and did not authorize the new deployment, calling it a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
“We do not have a problem on making contact with Iraq”, Kalin said.
“The situation violates Iraq’s sovereignty, and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation must use its power and force Turkey to immediately withdraw its troops from Iraqi territory”, read the statement.
Mihebis also confirmed media reports of Turkish airstrikes targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces in northern Iraq on Wednesday.
“The foreign ministry addressed the worldwide community”.
“We are ready for talks and every kind of exchange of ideas with Russian Federation but will never allow anything to be dictated to us”, he said.
But in the current political climate, the diplomat explained, endorsing the deployment of USA ground troops would be political suicide for Abadi.
Baghdad on Sunday gave Turkey a 48-hour deadline and threatened to appeal to the UN Security Council unless the troops are withdrawn.
Kalin said that apart from fight against Daesh “we have a fight against the terror organization called the PKK”. As Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has struggled to please both sides, he is increasingly seen as weak and indecisive, further undermining efforts to defeat the extremists.
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Though officially the expansion was related to concerns about threats from ISIS, they also cited “declarations encouraging violence” against Turkish companies among Iraqi Shi’ite groups in recent weeks.
