Iraq PM appeals to Turkey to pull out troops, provide training

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iraq's prime minister appealed Friday, January 22 to Turkey to pull its troops out of Iraqi territory and instead provide training and equipment to fight the Islamic State group, which he and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted is losing ground, the Associated Press reports.

Leaders at the World Economic Forum are focusing Friday on concerns about global security, with Syria's civil war and other geopolitical troubles weighing on an already wobbly global economy.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other officials at the forum in Davos, Switzerland, trying to drum up additional support for the anti-Islamic State military campaign.

Abadi met with several officials in Davos, calling for more help.

Turkey has had troops near the IS-controlled city of Mosul in northern Iraq since 2014. The arrival of additional troops last month sparked an uproar, and Ankara subsequently halted new deployments.

Turkey has not been clear about the exact number of troops it has deployed in Iraq, but the issue was one of several that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in Istanbul on Friday, was expected to bring up in Saturday meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"I don't know what their aim is. Is it an expansionist plot to control part of Ninevah?" Abadi said, referring to Mosul's region. "I hope not. ... If they truly want to fight against Daesh, well, they can train our forces. We have asked them to do that. They can supply us with equipment and weapons. We have asked for that. They didn't send it." He said IS is "on the retreat."

Kerry made similar comments in a Davos speech moments later.

The U.S. military has said the group has lost ground, yet it still holds key power centers in both Iraq and Syria — and put up a major fight for the city of Ramadi, which Iraqi forces are still trying to clear.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met Friday with Abadi to discuss NATO plans to start training Iraqi officers in the coming weeks, likely in neighboring Jordan. That would mark the first time that the Atlantic alliance has carried out such a training mission in Iraq since the end of another training mission there in 2011, said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.

In a broad policy speech at Davos, Kerry said the Obama administration will seek a major boost in funding for refugee support this year and press for at least 10 new countries to offer resettlement programs.