Northern Iraq offensive

Iraqi border security forces have begun duty in the country's Zakho region as Baghdad established two new military bases in the area threatened by the PKK for the first time in 33 years.

Turkish counterterrorism forces apprehended a Russian ISIL suspect who was working at a nuclear power plant being built in the country's south, local media reported on Feb. 13.

The Russian national had been working at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Mersin under false identity papers, several reports noted.

Six Iraqi security personnel and three civilians were killed in an ambush Nov. 21 carried out by ISIL north of Baghdad, police and a local official said.    

A police source said a roadside bomb hit a car and jihadists opened fire on a rescue team of policemen and state-aligned paramilitary forces when they arrived at the scene, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the capital.    

Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said the attacks on the bases were "revenge for the killing of top Iranian General, the Quds Unit Commander Qasem Soleimani."

Two rockets hit near the U.S. embassy in Iraq's capital on Jan. 5, witnesses told AFP, hours after the ambassador was summoned over a U.S. strike that killed top Iraqi and Iranian commanders.     

Jan. 5's attack was the second night in a row that the Green Zone was hit and the 14th time over the last two months that U.S. installations have been targeted.  

Turkey is willing to bring its citizens, especially children born to ISIL militants, in Iraq back to Turkey before Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ankara's ambassador to Iraq said.

Authorities in Iraq's Kurdish-controlled region have dismissed dozens of police officers alleged involvement in human trafficking, local media reported on Dec. 6.

Militants shot dead at least 29 people including women and children in an attack Sept. 22 on an Iranian military parade claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, as Tehran accused a US ally in the region of the assault.

Turkish security forces on June 14 detained eight foreign nationals in Istanbul for alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a police source told state-run Anadolu Agency. 

Turkey has shifted its anti-terror policy from defensive to offensive inside and outside the country, a senior government official has said, vowing that anything could happen in regards to the Turkish army's ongoing operation in northern Iraq.