ISIS continues to be actively targeting foreign forces in northern Iraq today, with reports that they attacked Turkish ground troops stationed at Bashiqa military base. These are the same troops who arrived in December over objections from the Iraqi government.
The Turkish troops stationed in Iraq retaliated, according to Turkish military officials, though as of yet there have been no reports of casualties suffered on either side. Turkish forces also launched cross-border strikes against other ISIS targets in the area.
Bashiqa is a mostly Kurdish town in Nineveh, just northeast of the major ISIS city of Mosul. The base there is one of several in the area which Iraqi and allied forces intend to use for an attack on Mosul later this year.
The Turkish soldiers there were meant to be training Kurdish Peshmerga, and have been a target for ISIS forces in the past. This latest attack follows two ISIS attacks in the past three days targeting a US base not far away.