“As the leader of a military brigade, I am not fully satisfied with the government’s action, and we are here to say that Iraq’s patience has run out”, said Ali Rubaie, the commander of a unit usually stationed west of Baghdad.
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Iraq says it gave no authorization for the Turkish troops to cross the border.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari have spoken by telephone at the latter’s request, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
Tens of thousands of supporters and Shiite militiamen rallied on Saturday and demanded that Turkish troops promptly pull away from a display of strength by the nation ‘s strong militia groups, Iraqi land as well as the Shiite political opponents of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
Turkey has a long-running training programme at a base near the city of Mosul, the Islamic State group’s main hub in Iraq, but the deployment last week expanded Ankara’s presence there. Iraq, however, denies any such deal.
“This is considered a flagrant violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter, and a violation of Iraqi territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Iraq”, the letter continues.
Iraq’s foreign ministry said Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of Baghdad, who view their presence as a “hostile act”, but the Turkish President said the troops were not there to fight.
The representative of the cleric, Ahmed al-Safi, relayed al-Sistani’s words during a Friday sermon.
“Taking into account the Iraqi government’s sensitivity, the decision was taken to reorganize the military personnel in the protection force at the Bashiqa camp”, Davutoglu’s office said.
“If the Iraqi government can not take measures to thwart terrorist attacks that maybe carried out from there against our country, we will take these measures ourselves”.
Pointing his pistol towards an image of Erdoğan, Amjad Salim, a local commander in the Badr Organisation in Basra, said: “We are on high alert now awaiting orders from our commanders to set fire to the ground beneath the feet of Turkish soldiers”.
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Turkey this week urged its citizens to leave all areas of Iraq excluding Iraqi Kurdistan, due to increased security risks.
