Turkey to Stop Sending Soldiers to Iraq after Baghdad Protests

Turkey said it would halt further transfers of troops to an area near the ISIL-controlled Iraqi city of Mosul after Baghdad threatened to appeal to the United Nations to force Turkey to withdraw its soldiers.

Turkey deployed hundreds of forces to a camp in the Bashiqa region of northern Iraq on Thursday, calling it a routine rotation to train Iraqis to retake Mosul from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which captured Iraq’s second-largest city in 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said his country might turn to the UN security council if Turkish troops sent to northern Iraq were not withdrawn within 48 hours.

He said the deployment of hundreds of Turkish forces happened without the approval or knowledge of the Iraqi government and constituted a violation of national sovereignty.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wrote a letter to Abadi on Sunday, saying Turkey’s armed forces would not send additional forces until Baghdad’s “sensitivities” were placated. He stopped short of agreeing to Abadi’s demand to withdraw the soldiers.