Turkey
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More than 70 Turkish servicemen have been reported missing after an Islamic State artillery attack in northern Iraq, according to Iraqi Kurdish media.

The Slemani Times reports that Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) fired over 300 120mm mortar shells at the Turkish camp in Bashiqa area about 23 kilometers from the city of Mosul occupied by IS.


Earlier there were reports that four Turkish servicemen received light injuries in a rocket attack on the Turkish military base in northern Iraq. The Turkish installation came under fire as part of a larger offensive of ISIS militants on Kurdish positions north of Mosul.

Islamists have been staging a number of attacks along the frontline with Kurdish Peshmerga militia, Reuters cited Kurdish military sources as saying.

Six or seven rockets landed inside the military compound situated in the Bashiqa area. The Turkish military claims the base is being used to train Iraqi militia to fight Islamic State.

The head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Foreign Relations Office, Hemin Hawrami, said that Kurdish forces had repelled multiple IS attacks on Wednesday, adding that two peshmerga commanders had been killed.

The Turkish military installation in northern Iraq has become a major stumbling block in relations between Ankara and Baghdad. While Turkey claimed the troops had been deployed at the invitation of the Iraqi government, Baghdad denied the claims and filed a complaint with the UN Security Council, dubbing Ankara's actions an incursion.

On Saturday, December 12, thousands of Iraqis throughout the country took to the streets to protest the unwelcome deployment of Turkey's troops. Protesters chanted anti-Turkish slogans and burned and trampled Turkish flags.

"We consider any military presence on Iraqi soil foreign aggression which we should stand against, using all possible means," Hadi al-Amiri, an Iraqi lawmaker, told a rally in Baghdad, Reuters reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would not withdraw its troops from an Iraqi camp and condemned Baghdad's appeal to the UN Security Council, saying the complaint was "not honest."

"This is not an honest step and we believe that Iraq's actions are related to the latest developments in the region, that is, the steps taken by Russia and Iran," Erdogan said in an interview with Al Jazeera.