Iraqi premier rejects Turkish claim on Mosul campaign

BAGHDAD: Tensions between Turkey and Iraq continued to escalate Wednesday as Iraq’s prime minister rejected Turkish claims that their forces must be included in an operation to retake the militant-held city of Mosul.
“We will liberate our land through the determination of our men and not by video calls,” Haider Al-Abadi said on his Twitter account, mocking the Turkish president’s nationally broadcast video call to a TV journalist amid a failed coup attempt in July.
On Tuesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish forces cannot be excluded from the long-awaited operation to retake Mosul, telling Iraq’s Al-Abadi to “know his place.”
Turkey-Iraq relations became strained after Ankara sent troops late last year to the region of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, to train anti-Daesh fighters there — a move Baghdad has since labeled a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty. Iraq has demanded a Turkish withdrawal, but Ankara has repeatedly ignored the call.
“You are not my interlocutor, you are not at my level, you are not my equivalent, you are not of the same quality as me,” Erdogan said Tuesday, addressing Al-Abadi in a speech delivered in Istanbul. “Your screaming and shouting in Iraq is of no importance to us. You should know that we will go our own way.”
Iraq’s Shiite militias — one of the many groups expected to take part in the fight to retake Mosul — have also called for an immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops.
“We did not and will not allow the Turkish forces to violate Iraq’s sovereignty,” said Hadi Al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Brigade, one of the most prominent Shiite militia groups.
“We affirm, the Turks must withdraw their forces and if they insist on staying, they have no one to blame but themselves. The arrogance and vanity that we hear today in Erdogan’s language, he will not only regret it but he will actually see it.”
The operation to retake Mosul is expected to be the most complex yet for Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air-power. Iraq’s military is still rebuilding after nearly a third of its forces disintegrated when Mosul first fell to IS more than two years ago.