Iraq requests Arab League meeting over troop row with Turkey

Cairo (dpa) - Iraq has asked the Arab League to hold an emergency meeting to discuss Baghdad‘s growing tensions with Ankara over Turkish troops in northern Iraq, a diplomat said on Thursday.Iraqi ambassador to Egypt, Diaa al-Dabas, said the request had been made by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in a telephone call with Nabil al-Araby, the head of the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization."The Arab League secretary-general is holding consultations with the Arab foreign ministers to set a date for the meeting," al-Dabas said."The meeting is aimed at studying repercussions of the Turkish troops‘ entry in Iraq and its effects on Arab national security," he added.Tensions are growing between Baghdad and Ankara over the Turkish troops who are training Iraqi Kurdish forces near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul which is controlled by the Islamic State terrorist militia.Ankara says the fewer than 1,000 troops in northern Iraq are for the purpose of training fighters to take on Islamic State.Baghdad insists that the Turkish troops had been sent without its permission and demanded their withdrawal.Turkey sent forces to the Bashiqa region of northern Iraq last week, calling it a routine rotation of its trainers.Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is under pressure from Shiite militias who are angry over foreign troop deployments in the country.Shiite militias are instrumental in Iraq‘s US-backed military campaign against Islamic State, which controls large parts of the country‘s Sunni heartland.