Four Turkish troops wounded in IS attack on Iraqi camp

Two Iraqi volunteers were also killed in the attack on the Bashiqa camp, where Iraqi fighters are being trained with Turkish help

Four Turkish soldiers have been wounded when Islamic State (IS) jihadists fired mortars on a training camp near the Iraqi city of Mosul, Turkish officials said.

Two Iraqi volunteers, one of them an officer, were killed in the attack on the Bashiqa camp, where Iraqi anti-jihadist fighters are being trained with Turkish help.

"We offer condolences to our Iraqi martyr brothers' families and the Iraqi people, and wish the injured a speedy recovery," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday.

IS - which counts Mosul as its main Iraqi hub - claimed responsibility for the assault in a statement posted online, although it said it used rockets rather than mortars.
 
"Soldiers of the caliphate were able to launch 200 Grad rockets," the statement said in reference to the Islamic "caliphate" the jihadist group has declared in parts of Iraq and Syria.

Powerful Shiite militia Ketaeb Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for the attack via its TV channel Etejah, but did not specify how it managed to shell a base located over 100 kilometres north of the northernmost positions held by federal forces and allied militiamen.

Turkey is widely perceived among Iraq's Shiite majority as complicit with IS, and Shiite militias have advocated using force against Turkish troops should they refuse to withdraw.

The military said it responded to the attack on the camp with fire of its own, adding that the four wounded Turkish troops had been taken for treatment in Sirnak province, on Turkey's side of the border.

"We are pleased to confirm that their condition is stable," a Turkish official said on condition of anonymity, emphasising that the attack originated from IS-held territory.

According to CNN-Turk television, IS jihadists fired up to 60 mortar rounds over several hours.

One of the Turkish troops was seriously wounded but his life is not in danger, it added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was briefed by army chief Hulusi Akar on the attack, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Iraqi Kurdish officials said the shelling in the Bashiqa area was part of a multi-pronged attack by IS attempting to break through lines held by peshmerga forces in several separate areas around Mosul.