The ministry said in a statement that the Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of the central govenrment in Baghdad, and that Iraq considered such presence “a hostile act”.
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Iraq has called on Turkey to immediately withdrawal Turkish troops operating in the country’s north, saying the deployment was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday.
Turkey and Kurdish autonomous zone of northern Iraqi enjoys close relations.
The Turkish troops, tanks and artillery were sent to Nineveh, a northern province largely held by IS, in an area now controlled by Kurdish forces but also claimed by Baghdad.
A senior Kurdish military officer based on the Bashiqa front-line, north of Mosul, said additional Turkish trainers had arrived at a camp in the area overnight on Thursday escorted by a Turkish protection force. A much anticipated Iraqi counter-offensive has been repeatedly postponed because they are busy fighting elsewhere, reported BBC News.
The Turkish military has released details of a training program for Kurdish peshmerga fighters it has been running in Iraq.
Rather, it is a pre-existing “training facility established to support local volunteer forces’ fight against terrorism”, set up in coordination with the Iraqi defence ministry, he said.
“We have trained and will continue to train our Iraqi brothers in Basiqa and other camps in northern Iraq who are fighting against Daesh”, he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
US officials in Washington said they were aware of Turkey’s move, but it was not coordinated with the anti-IS coalition operating in northern Iraq.
On Saturday, one Turkish official said “Turkey has been training the Peshmerga fighters as part of the anti-ISIL campaign for some time. One battalion has crossed into the region”, the source said, declining to say exactly how many soldiers had been deployed.
Authorities from the Kurdistan region announced not long ago that the fresh troops are in Mosul to replace the current Turkish trainers.
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“The Iraqi government confirms its firm and categorical rejection of any action of this kind issued by any country [that] violates our [Iraq’s] national sovereignty”, Abadi said in a statement which was also linked to his official Twitter account.
