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Turkey demands role in Mosul battle, but coalition unconvinced

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed Turkey’s keenness to be part of the liberation of the two IS strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul, but continuing differences with Washington and Baghdad make this difficult.
A Turkish army tank drives towards to the border in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RTX2MYVZ
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With US-led operations against the Islamic State’s strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq looming, Ankara and Washington are engaged in intense talks to determine Turkey’s involvement in them.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that Turkey wants in on both operations, declaring that US President Barack Obama called for Turkish cooperation in Raqqa during their recent meeting at the G-20 summit in Hangzhou, China. Turkish and American suspicions about each other’s ultimate motives, however, continue to make cooperation difficult.

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