By Haydar Hadi

BAGHDAD

The Iraqi authorities on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Atheel al-Nujaifi, a former governor of Mosul and the leader of the Turkey-trained "Nineveh Guard" forces, according to an Iraqi official.

"On Dec. 21 [of last year], three Mosul MPs lodged a legal complaint against al-Nujaifi in the which they claimed he had links with a foreign country [in reference to Turkey]," Abdulsattar Bayrakdar, a spokesman for Iraq’s central judicial authority, said in a Thursday statement.

In their complaint, Bayrakdar added, the plaintiffs went on to assert that al-Nujaifi had allowed Turkey "to establish a military base at Camp Zelikan in [Iraq’s] Dohuk province".

Bayrakdar cited two "witnesses" who he said had provided testimony on the continued Turkish military presence at the camp.

He also said that judicial officials had received "official documents" and "photographs taken inside the camp" proving the existence of the Turkish army presence there.

According to Bayrakdar, judicial investigations into the MPs’ complaint took 10 months.