Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has asked all Turkish nationals in Iraq to leave the country immediately due to security reasons.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has asked all Turkish nationals in Iraq to leave the country immediately due to security reasons.

The Foreign Ministry said in a travel advisory that Turkish citizens are recommended to leave Iraq, bar the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The ministry also warned Turkish citizens against non-essential trips to Iraq, claiming that the decision was aimed at protecting the Turks against terror attacks and threats.

The decision, however, comes as anti-Turkey sentiments are growing across Iraq over Ankara's controversial troop deployment to northern Iraq.

On December 4, Turkey deployed some 150 soldiers, equipped with heavy weapons and backed by 20 to 25 tanks, to the outskirts of the city of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province.