BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said on Saturday the entry of “around one armed battalion” of Turkish troops to the northern Nineveh area was a violation of its sovereignty and called on the forces to withdraw immediately, according to the prime minister’s media office.

The foreign ministry in a statement flashed on state television described the Turkish activity is “an incursion” and rejected any military operation that was not coordinated with the federal government in Baghdad.

A Turkish security source said on Friday that several hundred Turkish troops had been deployed to provide training for Iraqi troops near Mosul, a city of more than one million people which Islamic State militants overran in July 2014.