Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish troops are stationed at a military base in the northern Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government.
"Our soldiers were in Basheeqa camp at the request of Iraq’s President Fuad Masum in 2014," he said in an interview to Al-Jazeera TV.
150-300 Turkish troops and armored vehicles entered northern Iraq on December 4th. According to the Turkish side, the troop redeployment is a rotation of troops providing support for Iraqi Kurds fighting Daesh. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad and demanded the Turkish forces leave the country’s territory, TASS reports.
