Off the wire
• China promotes fast blood test to avoid secondary infection  • Africa Focus: Organized crime threats wild species in Africa: UN project  • British manufacturing PMI rises to 9-month high  • Feature: Bundle services make calls, SMSs and internet access cheaper in Kenya  • Italian police crackdown on professionals for alleged insurance fraud  • Vietnam to invest 4.8mln USD a year in training 20 elite athletes abroad  • Roundup: 2 blasts claim 8 lives of civilians in E. Afghanistan  • 2nd LD: Saudi diplomat freed after 3-year captivity in Yemen  • Spanish King inaugurates Mobile World Congress in Barcelona  • 1st LD: Saudi diplomat freed after 3-year captivity in Yemen  
You are here: 　 Home

Turkey to mull U.S.-led coalition operation in Iraq's Mosul

Xinhua, March 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said on Monday that Turkey will consider taking part in military operations by U.S.-led coalition forces to retake control of Mosul from jihadists in Iraq.

Ankara would decide in the due course whether to participate in the operations, putting into account the national interests and the responsibilities of being a member of the international coalition, Yilmaz said.

So far, Turkey has not taken part in combat operations against the IS, but has been training Peshmerga forces of Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government since November as part of the efforts to defeat IS militants.

Ankara and Washington recently signed a deal to train and equip Syrian rebels at a base in the central Anatolian city of Kirsehir.

Speaking to Iraqi Kurdish online news website Rudaw on Saturday, exiled governor of Mosul Atheel al-Nujaifi claimed Turkey will take part in the offensive to recapture Mosul, which has been under IS control since June. Endit