In Iraq, clashes near Mosul base kill 18 Islamic State militants

Clashes between a joint Turkish-Iraqi force and Islamic State militants near a training camp outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have left at least 18 IS fighters dead, the Turkish president and a former Iraqi governor said Friday.

Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul that Turkey killed 18 IS fighters who were planning to inflitrate Bashiqa and attack the camp, in a pre-emptive strike against the IS forces.

The assertion on January 8, which Iraq denied, renews a dispute with Baghdad that erupted last month after Turkey deployed a force protection unit of around 150 troops to an area hear Bashiqa where its soldiers have been training Iraqi militia to fight IS.

Erdogan said the problems over the deployment only started after Turkey’s relations with Russia soured in the wake of Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet over Syria in November.

The camp in Iraq’s Nineveh province, to which Sunni Muslim power Turkey has historic ties, is situated around 140 km (90 miles) south of the Turkish border.

But Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman Steve Warren has declared the reports “Iranian disinformation” created to distract from Iraqi forces’ success against Islamic State elsewhere.

Violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh terrorists launched an offensive in June 2014, and took control of parts of the Iraqi territory.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi has vowed to retake Mosul this year as a “fatal and final blow” to IS.

Ankara previously said that there was a “miscommunication” with Iraqi authorities over the deployment.

Speaking today but offering no specific details, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that the fact that some of the Turkish troops deployed to Iraq’s Nineveh Province came under fire from ISIS “vindicated” the decision to send the troops there, even though it was apparently done without permission.

“We are advancing towards the al-Andalus area, but as you know the roads are full of bombs”. The simmering tension prompted North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to reinforce Turkey’s air defenses after a summit late in December.