Middle East Online BAGHDAD -
Iraq's government on Tuesday warned Ankara against "any
violations" of its territory and airspace, and instructed the
foreign ministry to register a complaint at the UN Security
Council.
"We are
warning Turkey against any violations or breakdowns of the
airspace and land of Iraq," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh
said in a statement.
"The cabinet directed the foreign ministry to file a complaint
in the Security Council."
Turkish fighter jets have on multiple occasions
in past months bombed Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region,
targeting Kurdish rebels that have rear bases there. Turkey's
military has also shelled what it says are rebel bases.
Dabbagh's remarks were the latest in a cooling of
ties between Iraq and Turkey, with Baghdad also warning Ankara
on Sunday to stop accepting "illegal" transfers of crude oil
from the autonomous Kurdish region of north Iraq or risk
damaging bilateral ties.
A Kurdish official said this month that Iraqi
Kurdistan had begun sending oil produced in its three-province
region out of Iraq to Turkey so that the crude could be refined
and then brought back as oil products.
Ties between Iraq and Turkey, which had been
improving, have cooled considerably since December, particularly
over Turkey's refusal to extradite Iraq's fugitive Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is currently on trial in
absentia on charges he ran a death squad.
The extradition spat added to a deterioration of
ties between the two countries, with Iraq summoning Ankara's
envoy to Baghdad twice in a single month to complain of various
incidents.
