Earlier this week, Turkey deployed over 100 troops equipped with tanks and artillery in the town of Bashiqa, 10 kilometers northeast of Mosul, which is a stronghold of the Islamic State terror group (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
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Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said that Ankara was “establishing a base in the Bashiqa region of Mosul with 600 soldiers”.
“I have sent a letter to Abadi and told him that Iraqi sovereignty must be respected, and we have weapons and F-16 planes and must use them to hit the Turkish military force in Mosul, so no one will dare violate the sovereignty of Iraq”, he said.
The Turkish military has released details of a training program for Kurdish peshmerga fighters it has been running in Iraq. “One battalion has crossed into the region”, a source said, declining to say exactly how many soldiers had been deployed.
Iran believes that such measures, if conducted without coordination with the Iraqi government, run counter to regional security, he added.
However, the Turkish authorities have not officially confirmed the news yet.
The presence of Turkish troops near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq is a “violation” of worldwide law, Iraq’s president said Saturday.
Iraq’s government on Saturday demanded that Turkey immediately withdraw additional military personnel deployedto train Iraqi Kurdish fighters near the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also said the presence of Turkish troops is a “serious breach of Iraqi sovereignty”.
Iraq’s president, prime minister and foreign ministry have all objected to the Turkish deployment in recent days, calling it a hostile act and a violation of global law.
Also, he noted that the goal 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”.
The United States was aware of the deployment but the move is not part of the U.S.-led coalition’s activities, according to defence officials in Washington.
While Ankara supports Barzani’s Kurdish Regional Government, it considers the PKK, a group seeking autonomy for Kurds in Turkey, as well as its Syrian affiliates, as terrorist organizations.
ISIL militants overran Mosul in June 2014.
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According to the statement, Yilmaz said the forces were sent to protect Turkish trainers, but Obeidi said they were more than the numbers required for that task.
