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Turkey won't engage in military operations in Mosul: prime minister

Xinhua, March 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Thursday said Turkey won't directly join in a military operation to retake Iraq's northern city Mosul from the Islamic State (IS), the Turkish Cihan News Agency reported.

The Turkish prime minister made the remarks to Turkish media on the plane en route to New York.

"Turkey won't be a part of an armed clash in Iraq or Syria. We can supply aid to Mosul, but we won't be involved in a direct clash," Davutoglu said, adding that if there were a direct attack against Turkey, it would retaliate.

The report also quoted the prime minister as saying that if the IS withdraws from the city, Shiite militias shouldn't replace them.

Mosul, which had a population of over one million people, was captured by the IS in June and is the largest city in the extremist group's self-declared caliphate, a stretch of territory that straddles the border between northern Iraq and eastern Syria. Endit