عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Iraq Reveals Presence of Five Turkish Military Bases on its Soil

A view of the site of a Turkish attack on a mountain resort in Iraq's northern province of Dohuk, Iraq, July 20, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of the site of a Turkish attack on a mountain resort in Iraq's northern province of Dohuk, Iraq, July 20, 2022. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Iraq Reveals Presence of Five Turkish Military Bases on its Soil

A view of the site of a Turkish attack on a mountain resort in Iraq's northern province of Dohuk, Iraq, July 20, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of the site of a Turkish attack on a mountain resort in Iraq's northern province of Dohuk, Iraq, July 20, 2022. (Reuters)

Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army Abdel Emir Yarallah on Saturday exposed the extent of Turkey's military presence in Iraq, revealing that it is operating five bases in the country.

Speaking at a special parliamentary session in wake of last week's Turkish strike on the northern Dohuk province, in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Yarallah said: “The bases include more than 4,000 Turkish fighters.”

Moreover, he said Turkey has increased its incursions in Iraq.

He noted that its military boasted 40 positions in Iraq in 2021 and the figure has since risen to 100 at just short distances from the Zakho, Amadiya, and Dohuk regions.

Yarallah renewed calls to “send forces from the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga to these areas to take back vacant border lands to prevent the Turks from advancing or deploying artillery and make them turn back to their territories.”

Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi received on Monday the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

According to a readout issued by his bureau, Kadhimi said his government proceeded with the necessary protocols to bring up the Turkish bombing of a resort in Dohuk's Zakho before the Security Council.

“The Prime Minister called upon the UN and the international community to consider the Iraqi account of the situation,” said the statement.

For her part, Hennis-Plasschaert pledged to report the attack in a session the UN Security Council will call in to discuss this issue.

“Iraq mobilized all efforts, in agreement with its partners, to condemn the Turkish attacks,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Sahaf told Asharq al-Awsat.

The Security Council condemned in the strongest terms on Monday the Dohuk attack.

It reiterated support for the independence, sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, democratic process and prosperity of Iraq.

On Sunday, the Iraqi government sent a letter to the Security Council, saying Baghdad documented more than 22,740 violations committed by the Turkish armed forces.

Baghdad's letter included a demand for an apology from Ankara to Iraq and its people.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
TT
TT

Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.