Iraqi Civil War

Turkey will reinforce its troop deployments in the border town of Silopi amid a possible Shiite offensive to liberate Tal Afar, which has a sizeable ethnic Turkmen population and is considered a sensitive target for Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces on Thursday launched a major advance north and northeast of Mosul, Islamic State's stronghold in Iraq, on the fourth day of a mission to recapture the city.

Turkey said Oct. 17 that it was taking necessary measures against a possible refugee influx from Iraq and Syria, as an operation was launched to take Iraq's Mosul back from jihadists and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels indicated their next target was Syria's al-Bab following the capture of Dabiq on Oct. 16.

As if we were short of tension in this region, a brand new crisis has erupted between Turkey and Iraq. 

Last week Baghdad bridled at Turkey's military presence in Bashiqa, a base north of Mosul where Turkey has been training Sunni fighters and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga. The U.S. has sided with the central government of Iraq on this longstanding issue between Ankara and Baghdad.

Iraq's foreign ministry summoned Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Baghdad on Jan. 24 to protest his "interference" in the country's internal affairs over remarks on militia forces fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

At least 18,802 civilians have been killed in Iraq between January 1, 2014 and October 31, 2015, the United Nations announced on Tuesday.

A UN report said that beside the astonishing number of those killed, 36,245 persons have been wounded during the same period of time.

Iraqi forces battled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on separate fronts on Oct. 15, ramping up operations to retake Baiji and Ramadi, two of the conflict's worst flashpoints.

The Baiji area has seen almost uninterrupted fighting since ISIL  swept across Iraq last year, but top officers said on Oct. 15 the Baiji refinery, the country's largest, was almost secure.

Iraqi forces have retaken the Salaheddin provincial government headquarters in Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a significant advance in the battle to recapture the city, officials said March 31.
      

Iraqi commanders were plotting a strategy for flushing out the few remaining Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from central Tikrit, a city one commander said on March 14 would be liberated within three days.

The US revealed that Iran has carried out air strikes against targets of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq in the recent days.

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