ANKARA, Turkey—Turkey on Monday withdrew some of its soldiers from a camp in Iraq, its prime minister announced, days after Iraq had demanded that Turkish troops immediately leave its territory.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in an interview with A Haber news channel that a group of soldiers was pulled out as part of a “rearrangement” of troops and a “military necessity.”
Turkey has had troops near the Islamic State group-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq since last year to help train local Kurdish and Sunni forces, but the arrival of additional troops earlier this month sparked uproar in Baghdad. Turkey subsequently halted new deployments, but has refused to withdraw its soldiers.
Davutoglu wouldn’t provide details but suggested on Monday that the group of trainers would remain near Mosul.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed military officials, said a 10- or 12-vehicle convoy including tanks had left the Bashiqa camp and was heading toward northern Iraq.
It wasn’t immediately known if the Turkish troops would return to Turkey or would be stationed in Iraq’s Kurdish-controlled region.
But an Associated Press journalist saw Turkish trucks loaded with tanks inside a Turkish base in the Kurdish-controlled Barmane region. Witness Newroz Mikael, 32, said the trucks passed his shop Monday morning. Kurdish Peshmerga forces escorted the trucks loaded with tanks and vans with soldiers in them, Mikael said.
