Öykü Altuntaş / Istanbul, Dec 18 () - The United Nations Security Council is set to discuss a complaint by Iraq, after Turkey’s decision to deploy forces to Bashika Camp near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, on Dec. 18.
Around 150 troops have been deployed to the region in a bid to train “an Iraqi militia to fight the Islamic State (IS)”, while the decision has sparked tension between the two countries, as Iraqi government wanted the Turkish troops' withdrawal.
In a letter to the 15-member Security Council, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari urged that Turkey had violated Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial unity and integrity.
"We call on the Security Council to order Turkey to withdraw its forces immediately and to ensure, by all available means, that those forces retreat immediately and unconditionally to the internationally recognized border of the two countries" al-Jaafari said in the letter, announced on Dec. 11.
Jaafari also demanded the council to order Turkey not to reiterate such a violation, which is "harmful to international relations and pose a great threat to regional and international security".
The IS has bombed the training camp in Bashiqa on Dec. 16, leaving four Turkish soldiers wounded and two Peshmerga soldiers killed.
“This attack showed how legitimate our concerns were about the security of the Bashiqa camp” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.
Meanwhile, the flare-up between the two country was not welcomed by the U.S., “working to persuade Turkey to step up its fight against IS while escalating its own military efforts against the extremist group” reported VoiceHerald news portal.
“Iraq's Shiite-led government is under intense domestic pressure to resist the presence of foreign troops in the country, both from Sunni countries like Turkey and from the United States” the report said.
Abadi has also resisted, underlining foreign forces were not necessary to fight IS in Iraq.
