Baghdad is seeking United Nations condemnation of Turkey’s deployment of troops and tanks to Iraq without the country’s permission.

Baghdad is seeking United Nations condemnation of Turkey's deployment of troops and tanks to Iraq without the country's permission, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Baghdad gave Turkey 48 hours to remove the forces, which Ankara defended as necessary to protect trainers at a base in northern Iraq, but the deadline passed earlier this week without their withdrawal.

Iraq is contacting the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and other countries "to gather international support for issuing a Security Council resolution condemning this violation," the ministry said.

Baghdad also requested an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss "the consequences of this violation" and to adopt an Arab stance on it.

Turkey has a long-running training program at a base near the city of Mosul, the main Iraqi hub of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri group, but the deployment last week expanded Ankara's presence there.

"When the threats increased (to the lightly armed Turkish trainers), we sent troops to protect the camp. It's not an act of aggression but an act of solidarity," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

A militant group identifying itself as "Feraq al-Mawt" (Death Squads) released a video Wednesday threatening Turkey if it did not withdraw the troops.

A group using the same name previously claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 18 Turkish workers in Iraq.

Turkey called on its citizens to leave all areas of Iraq except the three-province autonomous Kurdish region in the north, with which Ankara has close ties.

It cited increasing threats targeting Turkish companies recently, as well as declarations encouraging violence, abduction and attacks.