Iraq says Turkey not honouring pledge to remove troops

The Iraqi foreign minister has threatened Turkey with military action if it refuses to honour an agreement to remove its troops from Iraq's northern region.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Wednesday that his government was committed to exhausting diplomatic avenues to avoid a crisis with Turkey, its northern neighbour, but insisted that all options remained open.<!--more-->

"If we are forced to fight and defend our sovereignty and riches, we will be forced to fight," he told reporters in Baghdad.

Likewise, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told his counterpart that a Turkish delegation had promised to withdraw its troops, according to a statement.

"But the Turkish government has not respected the agreement and we request that the Turkish government announce immediately that it will withdraw from Iraqi territory", he said.

Fight ISIL instead

If Baghdad wants to use force, they should use it against Daesh.

Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu 

The dispute flared up after Turkey deployed a protection unit of about 150 troops earlier this month near Bashiqa military base where its troops were training an Iraqi rebel group to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in nearby Mosul.
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