Mosul offensive

Two cargo planes carrying Turkish military aid to Iraqi soldiers arrived in Baghdad on March 3, a Turkish official told the Hürriyet Daily News, stressing that the assistance includes non-lethal military equipment aid for 500 soldiers of the central government.

Turkey will continue to assess its ?further contribution? to an international military operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Defense Minister ?smet Y?lmaz stated on March 2.

Turkey will continue to assess whether or not to take part in an international military operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Defense Minister ?smet Y?lmaz said on March 2.

An Iraqi and Kurdish military force of some 20,000 to 25,000 troops is being prepared to recapture the city of Mosul from fighters of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), probably in the April-May time frame, an official at the U.S. Central Command said on Feb. 19.
   

Nearly 500 Turkish truckers carrying export goods bound for Iraq have been stuck in the northern province of Kirkuk for a month over security threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to drivers.

Drivers, who have been kept on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road, said Iraqi authorities are refusing to unload the goods over concerns about ISIL.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group killed a senior Kurdish commander and five other fighters on Jan. 30 in a major attack in Iraq's Kirkuk province, an officer and a doctor said.

Jordan has reportedly asked help from Turkey in an attempt to rescue a Jordanian pilot captured last week by Islamist militants during a mission in Syria.

Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani said Kurdish requests from the international coalition for heavy weapons in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have not been fully met.

Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani said Kurdish requests from the international coalition for heavy weapons in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have not been fully met.

Just weeks after his last visit to Turkey, U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy for coalition efforts against jihadists in Iraq and Syria, John Allen, is holding talks with top civilian and military officials in Ankara.