Alwaght- Iraqi army won a great victory in recent days and sized back Ramadi, capital of al-Anbar province from the ISIS terrorists. Although there are some clashes in parts of the town, it has been totally liberated. Immediately after this achievement, to win back Fallujah has been placed on the agenda of the Iraqi army, so that it can get ready to seize back Mosul, the most important headquarter of ISIS in Iraq. Nevertheless, there are some obstacles in liberation of Mosul that may pose serious problems for the Iraqi army. �

Presence of Turkish military forces in northern Iraq is the biggest obstacle in this path. The important point is about the goals of the Turkish military presence in entering al-Zalkan military camp in Bashiqa region, 30 km northeast of Mosul. They claimed to have come to the area to fight the ISIS terrorist group. Ironically, if the Turks were really going to combat ISIS terrorists, they could do it in Syria, as they are much closer to Turkey.

In the real-world, evidence released up to now confirms that Turkey has been collaborating with ISIS in trafficking and sale of oil, and to combat ISIS is just a pretext for Turkey. Some analysts believe that Turkey is greedy about Iraq and even seeks to capture some oil-rich regions of Iraq, and the same as the Ottoman Empire, Erdogan has some plans for separating parts of Iraq, and annexing them to Turkey.

Analyst also believe that ISIS is likely not to be eradicated from Iraq, and some may pose different obstacles in the way to the Mosul's liberation, the headquarter of ISIS terrorists in Iraq. These kinds of attitudes and actions might even lead to military confrontation between the two countries and in this case, the liberalization of Mosul would become more complicated.

In this regard, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraqi Foreign Minister once again asked Ankara to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq. He also warned that if the Turkish military presence continues in Iraq, Iraq would have to use the military option against Ankara. This statement was met with Ankara's reaction. Turkish Prime Minister sarcastically responded to Baghdad: �You�d better use your military against the ISIS rather than Ankara.�

Statements made by Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister provoked Iraq in such a way that immediately Iraqi Prime Minister in a telephone conversation with Davutoglu, strongly stressed that Turkish troops should withdraw from northern Iraq.

Claiming that Turkish troops do not fight ISIS, Haider al-Abadi added, �There is no justification for the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq.� According to the statement released by office of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi has told Davutoglu that: �Iraq has gained some victories against the ISIS terrorist group and Iraqi security forces are currently providing the security of Ramadi so that its residents may come back.

Mosul would be the next station of Iraqi forces, and we completely disagree with the presence of Turkish troops in Mosul without the knowledge and consent of the Iraqi central government, because this has caused many crises.�

Iraqi Prime Minister reiterated that Turkey has not been committed to its agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw troops from Iraq, he added: �we strongly urge Ankara to withdraw its troops from Iraq and respect the sovereignty of Iraq.� �Verbal conflicts between Iraqi and Turkish authorities indicate the depth of the crisis.

If the Turkish military wish to continue their presence in northern Iraq around Mosul, then the Iraqi army would not be able to fully focus on the fight against ISIS, and Turkish military would make trouble for the Iraqi army.

In the upcoming months, Iraqi army would certainly begin the operations to liberate Mosul, and if Turkey insists on maintaining its troops in northern Iraq, the two countries may even come into military confrontation, and this would complicate the equations. Now, we should wait to see which way Turkey will choose to fight the ISIS terrorist group: withdrawal of its troops from around Mosul or insistence on confrontation with the Iraqi army?

By Alwaght