US Says Turkey Must Pull Unauthorized Forces From Iraq

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dec 16, 5:50 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States ramped up pressure Wednesday on Turkey to pull unauthorized troops from Iraq, aiming to defuse a dispute that has rankled relations between two countries central to the fight against the Islamic State group.

Vice President Joe Biden, in a phone call with Iraq's leader, lent credence to Iraq's claim that its neighbor violated its sovereignty by sending reinforcements to a training camp in northern Iraq. He told Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that the deployment "occurred without the prior consent of the Iraqi government," the White House said.

Iraq's government has been incensed over Turkey's move to send reinforcements to the camp in the Bashiqa region, near the IS-held city of Mosul. Abadi has demanded that Turkish troops immediately withdraw from Iraq's territory. But Turkey has insisted the added troops were needed to protect its forces from attacks by IS - a concern that gained new relevance Wednesday when IS militants attacked the camp, killing three Iraqi Sunni fighters and wounding several Turkish trainers.

The flare-up between Iraq and Turkey has hardened into an unwelcome distraction for the U.S., which is working to persuade Turkey to step up its fight against IS while escalating its own military efforts against the extremist group. Biden and other U.S. officials have been working the phones for days, urging both Abadi and Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to resolve the dispute.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_TURKEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-12-16-17-50-08

[libdem4life]

1. I fear this is one of those "This doesn't end well" global situations. Now that we sscrewed with

their tribal territories in WW I, nothing has gone well. Not blaming the US...just pure ignorance and meddling in places that have been at war for millennia. If not for oil and/or Empire, we wouldn't give one sh## about these country's relations.

Bombs and Troops and Threats can not solve these issues. We broke it, now fixing it isn't so easy.

[RKP5637]

2. If the US took all of its toys and went home these places and the world would likely be better! This

country has been doing the SOS for eons. F's around in cultures/places we don't understand and then wonders why people there get pissed.