Turkish army says soldier killed in northern Iraq

A Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in northern Iraq on Saturday when rockets fired by ISIS during clashes with Iraqi Kurdish fighters landed in a base where Turkish troops were deployed, the army said.

NATO member Turkey, part of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, sent troops to northern Iraq in December, citing heightened security risks near Bashiqa, where its soldiers have been training an Iraqi militia to fight Islamist militants. Baghdad objected to the Turkish deployment.

"Islamic State targets identified in the region have been shot back at," the Turkish military said in a statement.

Saturday's incident came less than a week after ISIS militants attacked the Bashiqa military base, triggering a retaliation from Turkey.

The Turkish army said on Saturday the rockets had landed near the Gedu base area. Local sources said this referred to a site on the frontline north of Mosul, near to Bashiqa.

Last week, backed by Kurdish peshmerga fighters and the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi forces launched an offensive against ISIS in the Makhmour area, southeast of Mosul, that was touted as the start of a broader campaign to clear areas around the city.

Mosul is by far the largest population centre controlled by the ISIS militants and has already been cut off on three sides by the Kurdish peshmerga, who are less than 15 km (9 miles) from its northern outskirts at some points along the front line.

Iraqi officials say they will retake Mosul this year. However many question in private whether the army, which partially collapsed when ISIS overran a third of Iraq in June 2014, will be ready in time.