Turkey pulls out some troops from Iraq camp

12-VEHICLE CONVOY, INCLUDING TANKS, HEADS TOWARDS NORTHERN IRAQ

Turkey withdrew some of its soldiers stationed at a camp in Iraq as part of a “rearrangement” of its troops, the country’s state-run news agency reported yesterday, days after Iraq demanded that Turkish troops immediately pull out from Iraqi territory.

Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed military officials, said that a 10- or 12-vehicle convoy, including tanks, had left the Bashiqa camp and was heading toward northern Iraq. The agency did not provide further details but said the military officials insisted the movement was part of a “rearrangement.”

Turkey has had troops near the Daesh-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq since last year to help train local Kurdish and Sunni forces, but the arrival of additional troops earlier this month sparked uproar in Baghdad. Turkey subsequently halted new deployments but has refused to withdraw its soldiers.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi called for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq in a national address Friday night.

He also asked the Foreign Ministry to submit a complaint to the United Nations about the presence of Turkish troops.

Turkey argued that the additional troops were needed to protect its trainers from increased Daesh threat against Turkish soldiers.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that a bilateral summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan planned for December 15 in St. Petersburg will not now happen.

The summit was agreed upon during a meeting between the two men in Turkey on the sidelines of a G-20 summit last month which predated Ankara’s shooting down of a Russian military jet near the Syrian-Turkish border.

“It won’t happen, it’s not planned,” Peskov said of the summit when asked about it by reporters yesterday.

Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara’s patience with Russia “has a limit” after Moscow’s “exaggerated” reaction to a weekend naval incident between the two countries, an Italian newspaper reported yesterday.