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Iraq summons Turkish ambassador over troops near Mosul

“Iraqi authorities call upon Turkey to withdraw immediately from Iraqi lands”.

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The deployment “is considered a serious violation of Iraqi sovereignty”, it added.

Turkey claims the camp is a “training facility” to support volunteer forces in the fight against terrorism.

Turkey says it has deployed 150 soldiers in the town of Bashiqa to train Iraqi Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, and it does intend to launch a ground offensive.

Davutoglu said the camp is located some 30 km northeast of Mosul and was established at the governor of Mosul’s request and in coordination with the Iraqi Defence Ministry.

Islamic State militants overran Mosul in June 2014.

The movement of troops angered the Iraqi Government so that it has now summoned the Turkish Ambassador in Baghdad.

A small number of Turkish trainers was already at the camp to train a force called Hashid Watani (national mobilization), which is made up of mainly Sunni Arab former Iraqi police and volunteers from Mosul.

The “troop deployment in northern Iraq serves as a deterrent” against attempts by groups including the PKK to expand their influence into Iraq, according to Mehmet Kaya, head of the Tigris Communal Research Center in Diyarbakir, a Kurdish-dominated city in southeast Turkey.

Turkish soldiers were sent to the Mosul region 2½ years ago to train Iraqi Peshmerga forces – Kurdish fighters in the region.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum, demanded the Interior Ministry on Saturday to take measures consistent with global law to ensure that Turkish military will withdraw from the city of Mosul and prevent that similar incidents could be repeated.

He said he was not aware of the size of the force and refused to speculate.

Also, he noted that the objective is “to ensure political, diplomatic and security conditions for the relations with neighboring nations in a suitable and respectful way, with Turkey and with other countries”.

Some 600 Turkish soldiers and 25 tanks have been sent to Bashiqa in northern Iraq.

Turkey has been providing training to Kurdish forces in three different locations throughout the autonomous Kurdish region in agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government. “This is a part of that training”, one senior Turkish official told Reuters.

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The presence of foreign troops in Iraq has been a recurring subject this week after the Pentagon announced sending 100 military to the Middle Eastern country, while Sen.

Turkish troops deployed in northern Iraq to provide training – reports