Turkish soldiers injured in attack in Iraq

Date

12/17/2015 8:20:57 AM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Baghdad-

The Islamic State jihadist group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for attacking Turkish forces at a base in northern Iraq that Ankara said wounded four soldiers.

"Soldiers of the caliphate were able to launch 200 Grad rockets" at the base near the city of Mosul IS said in a statement posted online referring to the "caliphate" it declared in areas of Iraq and Syria.

Turkish officials said that two Iraqis were killed in the attack and four Turkish soldiers wounded but that the assault was carried out with mortars.

The attack took place during a multi-pronged IS operation aimed at breaking through Iraqi Kurdish lines in several areas around Mosul the jihadists' main hub in Iraq.

Turkey deployed forces to the base where it has a long-running training programme for anti-IS forces earlier this month sparking a bitter diplomatic row with Baghdad.

Ankara insists the deployment was routine and necessary to protect the trainers while Baghdad said it was unauthorised and demanded the troops be withdrawn.

The IS claim was the second of the day for the attack following another by powerful Shiite militia Ketaeb Hezbollah.

Turkey is widely perceived in Iraq's Shiite majority as complicit with IS and Shiite militias have advocated using force against Turkish troops should they refuse to withdraw.

Ketaeb Hezbollah said on its TV channel Etejah that it was responsible but did not specify how it managed to shell a base located over 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the northernmost positions held by federal forces and allied militiamen.

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