DAESH attacked the peshmerga ranks and Turkey's military base in Bashiqa, Iraq on Wednesday afternoon with between 40 and 50 howitzers and Russian-made Katyusha rocket launchers against the Turkish unit there. The Turkish artillery unit responded immediately to DAESH's attacks. The howitzers in Bashiqa returned fire at the points that were attacked. Two people from the Iraqi voluntary unit lost their lives and four Turkish soldiers were injured.
Hemen Havrami, the head of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), announced that nine vehicles carried out eight suicide attacks during the simultaneous attacks organized by DAESH and seven soldiers were killed. It was announced that 70 DAESH militants were killed as a result of their most intense attack in recent months. DAESH made a statement saying that they attacked Turkish soldiers with 200 rockets.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) issued a statement that said: "This attack has once again demonstrated the importance of the security of the unit." With this statement, the TSK pointed to the Baghdad administration's incapacity to contain DAESH and indicated that Turkey would continue to take measures as much as it can against this giant terror threat on its border.
The Foreign Ministry said: "This attack shows how we were right to worry about the security of the Bashiqa/Zelikan camp, which is an important element of Turkey's support for Iraq in its struggle with DAESH and how necessary the guarding elements [Turkish troops] were that we wanted to position there." It added: "Unfortunately, as a result of exaggerated news reports, which some circles deliberately spread, the [military] activity that has been undertaken just to support Iraq at that camp for a long while has been turned into a problem that clashes with Turkish-Iraqi friendship and cooperation against DAESH. These campaigns have made that camp and personnel deployed there visible in the eyes of the terrorist organization, turned them into a target and unfortunately encouraged the terrorist organization." These statements implied that Iranian and Russian efforts, which highlighted the Turkish military presence in Bashiqa, heartened DAESH.
It is still within living memory that the soldiers from the Iraqi army took off their military uniforms, laid down their arms, fled DAESH and the Turkish consulate-general in Mosul was taken hostage by DAESH. Furthermore, Turkey is a country that experienced the greatest terror attacks in its history when DAESH carried out attacks in Diyarbakır, Suruç and Ankara. That is why one cannot expect Turkey to turn a blind eye to DAESH becoming an even greater threat to it by gaining territory in Iraq and Syria.
Although the U.S. was supposed to act as Turkey's NATO ally, a statement that the White House issued after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi almost aimed to hog-tie Turkey.
While the Iranian army, Hezbollah and Shiite militias who are recruited from various countries have a free hand in Iraq, the sole way to understand why the Iraqi administration is troubled by Turkish soldiers who undertake training activity at certain military bases is to accept that many states aim not to fight DAESH but to maintain their own domination in Iraq.
Despite all challenges, it appears that Turkey will continue to use its right to struggle with the DAESH presence in Iraq and Syria with which it has long borders.
