Alwaght- Iraq will prevent Kurdish militants based in northern part of the country from launching cross-border attacks against Turkey, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said.
Abadi’s pledge, made on Tuesday during a phone call with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, came a day after Ankara threatened to intervene directly if the Iraqi operation against the militants based in the Sinjar region failed.
Turkish authorities are outraged that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are being given free rein to operate out of Sinjar against Turkish targets. "Iraqi security forces have been instructed not to allow the presence of foreign fighters in the border region," Abadi’s office quoted him as telling Yildirim in their conversation.
The chief of Iraq’s military General Staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, echoed that message during an inspection tour on Tuesday of troops deployed in Sinjar, the state-run news website Iraqi Media Network reported.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's intelligence chief would meet an Iraqi official to discuss the Iraqi military operation in Sinjar.
"We hope that the Iraqi central government will carry out this operation in Sinjar properly," Erdogan said, adding that Turkey would do "what is necessary" if the Iraqi government's operation failed.
The PKK, viewed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, reportedly has camps in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, from which it purportedly carries out attacks into Turkey.
Since July 2015, the Turkish air force has been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.
In early December 2015, Turkey deployed a contingent of its troops to the Bashiqa military camp north of Mosul, claiming that the move had been earlier coordinated with Iraqi officials.
