Prensa Latina.jpg Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Slams Turkish Military Presence in Iraq Prensa Latina, Havana, from Baghdad, 11 December 2015 Iraq's top Shi-ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani today criticized the deployment of Turkish troops and tanks near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and reiterated the immediate and unconditional removal demand. "No country should send its soldiers to the territory of another state under the pretext of supporting it in fighting terrorism without the conclusion of an agreement between the governments of the two countries," said Al Sistani in remarks delivered by a representative at weekly Friday prayers. Al Sistani categorically rejected the statement made by Turkish President Recep Tayyid Erdogan, saying that Turkey will not pull out troops already stationed in Iraq, and warned that the Iraqi people will protect the country's sovereignty. About 150 men with military vehicles, including tanks and armoured vehicles, invaded Iraq and stay in a base near Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, which is under the control of the Islamic State (IS) since June last year. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi also demanded his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu the Turkish troops' withdrawal from Iraq, but despite of repeated calls Ankara has disregarded the pull-out order. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has defended the deployment as an "act of solidarity" and said that when the threats (to the trainers) increased, they sent troops to protect the camp. From: <http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4427771&; Itemid=1> http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4427771&I temid=1 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
