Al Jazeera News :
Ongoing tensions between Turkey and Iraq have intensified after Turkey said its troops fired artillery rounds at ISIL targets near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, following a request by Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Binali Yildirim, Turkish prime minister, said on Sunday that Turkish troops stationed outside Mosul had provided support “with artillery, tanks and howitzers” following a request by Peshmerga forces.
However, Iraq’s joint-operations command on Monday denied Turkey’s claims. “The spokesman of the Joint Operations Command denies Turkish participation of any kind in operations for the liberation of Nineveh,” a statement said, referring to the Iraqi province of which Mosul is the capital. Later in the day, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said Turkish artillery fire had killed 17 ISIL fighters since the battle began and that four Turkish F-16 fighter jets were on standby to take part.
Turkey’s parliament voted last month to extend the deployment of an estimated 2,000 troops across northern Iraq by a year to combat “terrorist organisations”. About 500 of these troops are stationed in the Bashiqa camp, training Kurdish and local Sunni Arab fighters. “Peshmerga forces took action to clear the town of Bashiqa from Daesh,” Yildirim said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIS. “They asked for help from our troops at the Bashiqa camp and we are supporting them with artillery, tanks and Firtina howitzers.” Mosul, home to up to 1.5 million people, has been the headquarters of ISIL’s self-declared caliphate in northern Iraq since 2014. The battle for the city, which started earlier this month, is likely to shape the post-ISIL Iraq. Thousands of Peshmerga forces are currently involved in a massive push around the town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, where Turkey has its military base.
Ongoing tensions between Turkey and Iraq have intensified after Turkey said its troops fired artillery rounds at ISIL targets near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, following a request by Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Binali Yildirim, Turkish prime minister, said on Sunday that Turkish troops stationed outside Mosul had provided support “with artillery, tanks and howitzers” following a request by Peshmerga forces.
However, Iraq’s joint-operations command on Monday denied Turkey’s claims. “The spokesman of the Joint Operations Command denies Turkish participation of any kind in operations for the liberation of Nineveh,” a statement said, referring to the Iraqi province of which Mosul is the capital. Later in the day, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said Turkish artillery fire had killed 17 ISIL fighters since the battle began and that four Turkish F-16 fighter jets were on standby to take part.
Turkey’s parliament voted last month to extend the deployment of an estimated 2,000 troops across northern Iraq by a year to combat “terrorist organisations”. About 500 of these troops are stationed in the Bashiqa camp, training Kurdish and local Sunni Arab fighters. “Peshmerga forces took action to clear the town of Bashiqa from Daesh,” Yildirim said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIS. “They asked for help from our troops at the Bashiqa camp and we are supporting them with artillery, tanks and Firtina howitzers.” Mosul, home to up to 1.5 million people, has been the headquarters of ISIL’s self-declared caliphate in northern Iraq since 2014. The battle for the city, which started earlier this month, is likely to shape the post-ISIL Iraq. Thousands of Peshmerga forces are currently involved in a massive push around the town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, where Turkey has its military base.
