“Four Turkish troops were wounded in a mortar attack against the military training camp near Mosul”, the official said.
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Carter, the secretary of defense, stated at an American air force base in southern Turkey on Tues.in that “we really are looking for the rest of the world to step up” in fighting the Islamic State.
Baghdad says the Turkish military presence is a violation of its sovereignty.
“This is a very complex environment that we are operating in, and we have to be attentive to some of the political realities that surround us every single day”, said Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, as the mission in Iraq and Syria is known.
However stressed from hard-line Shiite politicians to not expand the American military role right here, Mr. Abadi didn’t take up the Pentagon on its current supply to support Iraqi forces with Apache attack helicopters flown by American pilots within the battle for Ramadi.
A statement from the Turkish armed forces said Katyusha rockets fired by Islamic State at the peshmerga had hit the camp, lightly wounding four soldiers who are now being treated in a hospital in the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak.
In the mean time, heavy clashes erupted as dozens of IS militants carried out attack on the security positions, but the troops repelled the attack killing 12 extremist militants killed and 16 others injured, the source added.
Details of the plan have not been disclosed, and United States officials haven’t said when they may deploy to Iraq.
Turkey has previously claimed that troops were deployed at the request of the Iraqi government to train local forces and Iraqi army elements against ISIL.
The Kurdish Pehmerga are expected be part of a force to liberate Mosul, the city that has been ISIS’ stronghold in Iraq ever since the militants captured it from Iraqi forces in June a year ago.
Turkey says its troops are stationed in Bashiqa to protect Turkish servicemen training Iraqi volunteers to fight Daesh.
Carter’s visit is part of a Middle East swing that began in Turkey on Tuesday and also aims to coax more contributions from USA allies in the campaign against Islamic State.
On the process of working with the Iraqi government on the fight against ISIL, the general characterized it as a conversation. But Abadi has resisted, arguing foreign forces aren’t needed to fight IS in Iraq. US officials fear their involvement could create a backlash in Sunni Muslim areas and fuel another sectarian bloodletting like the civil war that ravaged Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
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“I think we are on the verge of breaking the back of Daesh, I hope”, he told Carter at a Saddam Hussein-era palace where they met, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
