The US State Department had said earlier that the conflict was a just a “dispute between Turkey and Iraq” over “a small number of troops”.
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On December 4, Ankara deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to a base in Iraq’s Nineveh province, Baghdad regards the deployment as illegal. He told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that the deployment “occurred without the prior consent of the Iraqi government”, the White House said. Iraqi Kurdish officials said the shelling in the Bashiqa area was part of a multi-pronged attack by IS attempting to break through lines held by peshmerga forces in several separate areas around Mosul. Turkey has stationed troops at a base outside of the Iraqi city of Mosul since past year as part of a training mission coordinated with the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
“The reported withdrawal of Turkish military personnel and equipment out of camp Bashiqa that should be followed by additional steps and measures, opens the door towards moving past this incident”, United Nations envoy to Iraq Jan Kubis said in a statement on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday touted the effectiveness of the Kurdish peshmerga in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but indicated there were no plans to begin directly arming them despite bipartisan support in Congress to do so.
“Everything we do…here is subject to the approval of the sovereign Iraqi government”, Carter said. “Why is it not bombing terrorists as such, but the Kurds instead?”
Carter said both Abadi and Lt. General Sean MacFarland, who is leading the war on ISIS, both feel right now that the helicopters are not needed for the fight to take Ramadi.
But a decision to employ the helicopters – like a move to embed US advisers with lower-level Iraqi units – would draw the United States even deeper into the war and would expose USA troops to greater risk.
Carter first suggested providing attack helicopters and more combat advisers in the context that battle, saying more USA troops and firepower could help tip the fight in favor of Iraq.
The first suicide attack was followed by three more suicide vehicle bomb attacks on the security positions, but the troops backed by Iraqi aircraft managed to blew them up and killed their suicide bombers before they reach their targets, the source said.
Vice President Joe Biden is calling on Turkey to withdraw any military forces that Iraq’s government hasn’t authorized.
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Ten thousand members of the Iraqi security forces surround Ramadi, but US officials have expressed frustration at how long it has taken Iraqi security forces to take back the city. A key U.S. priority is for Turkey to finally close a stretch of its border with Syria that ISIL controls on the Syrian side, denying the extremist group a crucial corridor for funneling foreign fighters into Syria.
