Iraqi’s military are on high alert after Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered the country’s air force to be prepared to take action if Turkish troops fail to withdraw from Northern Iraq.
The alert comes after the Ankara government ignored requests from Baghdad to remove its 150 soldiers from Northern Iraq on Friday.
Farsnews.com reports:
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Turkey claims that its forces that are deployed near the city of Mosul are tasked with training Peshmerga, which has been involved in the fight against Daesh, also known as ISIL. Ankara has not received or even asked Baghdad’s permission for dispatching its troops to Northern Iraq. The Turkish troops crossed the border even without any coordination or knowledge of Iraq.
Al-Abadi’s order comes after the Iraqi National Security Council in a statement on Sunday warned that if Turkey does not call for withdrawal of its troops from Nineveh province in Northern Iraq, Baghdad reserves the right for using any option against Ankara.
Earlier today, Al-Abadi said Baghdad may use all the available options, including an address to the UN Security Council, if Turkey fails to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq within 48 hours.
“Iraq has the right to use all available options, including resorting to the UN Security Council in the absence of the withdrawal of these forces within 48 hours,” Abadi said in a statement following the National Security Council meeting.
According to the prime minister, the deployment of hundreds of Turkish servicemen on the Iraqi territory without the consent and knowledge of the Iraqi authorities is a violation of sovereignty and a breach of the principles of good neighborliness.
Earlier on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish troops were deployed in Iraq on the country’s Defense Ministry invitation.
Earlier today, Head of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri said his forces are fully prepared to launch strikes at the US military bases and Turkish troops in Iraq.
“We will target all the military bases of the US in Iraq,” the Arabic-language al-Mosle news website quoted al-Ameri as saying in reaction to the US interferences in Iraq.
He, meantime, pointed to Turkey’s interferences in Iraq, and said, “The Turkish government should know that we will destroy all its tanks if it does not withdraw from the city of Mosul.”
Sean Adl-Tabatabai
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