Turkish military starts training missions in Mosul, Syria

Turkish Special Forces are training Sunni forces in Iraq, as well as Turkmens in Syria, Turkish officials have confirmed.

The training mission was first revealed by Asil Nujaifi, the governor of Mosul, in an interview with Anadolu Agency on March 15.

"Experts from Turkey are providing military training to our forces on the bases," Nujaifi said. "Turkey is assuming a better role on this issue every day, but whether it will join the Mosul operation is related to the talks it will have with the coalition forces. It is very important that Turkey is involved in this operation."

Turkish officials have confirmed Nujaifi's remarks. Officials told daily Hürriyet that special forces, also known as the "Maroon Berets," were providing training to Peshmerga forces in Arbil, as well as mostly Turkmen forces in Mosul and Kirkuk.

The officials also said Turkmen forces were being trained at a location inside Syria, which they did not want to name due to security concerns.

Last week, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq announced that at least 16,000 Iraqi troops had been trained over the past four months to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

The training provided by the Turkish military is focused on street clashes, sabotage and intelligence gathering. The sources declined to comment on the timing of the training and how many people will be trained, but said the training mission could soon be expanded to other parts of Iraq. 

The Turkish Special Forces have so far provided training to more than 1,000 peshmerga members.

Authorities did not deny that the training mission was related to a looming operation to retake Mosul from ISIL.

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