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Tensions are on the rise between Turkey and Iran. A growing war of words between the countries' diplomats has brought to the surface simmering competition for influence in the region.

Iran is an important neighbor to us. We have always been in dialogue with Iran. But it does not mean we will ignore Irans efforts in penetrating the region, said Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin in the latest thinly veiled threat between the countries during his weekly news conference.

Kalin was responding to comments by Ali Akbar Velayati, a key adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who told Turkish soldiers to leave Iraq and Syria, or the people would kick them out.

They are very serious, I mean the competition between Iran and Turkey, everyone knows it, it's like two elephants in a small room, warns political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. Iran is clearly an expansionist country, their goal of building a Shia circle all the way from Tehran to Lebanon is no secret, at least from the Turkish perspective.

Experts say religious sectarianism underscores the tensions between predominantly Shia Iran and mostly Sunni Turkey.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan likes to present himself as a protector of Sunni Muslim rights and has accused Iran of pursuing a policy of religious sectarianism, a charge Tehran denies. Earlier this month, Erdogan accused the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement of being a terrorist organization.

Danger of overreach

But there are voices in Turkey questioning whether Ankara is in danger of overreach. What is our military strength, what is our foreign policy strength, what is our intelligence strength, asks former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, suggesting Ankara should consider tempering its confrontational stance. Are we a regional power? Yes. Are we a global power? No. Are we a regional power which can have its way in all issues? No, we have to work with other regional powers like Iran.

Erdogan has been turning to other Sunni countries in the region for support.

FILE - Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against Iran's role in Aleppo, Syria, near the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Dec. 16, 2016. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq have further chrystalized differences between Turkey and Iran both of which jockey for influence in the region.

This month, he visited Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States for talks observers say focused on curtailing Irans influence. Analysts suggest Ankaras assertive stance could be influenced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

With Trump, flexing his muscles against Tehran, Ankara may have sensed an opportunity to bring this antagonism into the open and to finally resolve this longstanding low level conflict in Syria and Iraq space, suggests consultant Yesilada.

Proxy wars

But he warns Ankara could pay a heavy price. That of course is also very costly, for one thing we have a gas deal with Iran, we have great hopes of economic cooperation. And finally of course Iran is not a country that easily gives up on its strategic advantages and currently it holds the upper hand in Iraq and Syria, said Yesilada.

The repercussions for Ankara are not likely to be confined to trade, with Tehran being an expert in fighting proxy wars. Regional reports say Tehran is seeking to court Kurdish insurgent group the PKK and its affiliates across the region.

Iran may use the Kurdish card. Turkey has been accusing Iran in the past of somehow harboring and assisting the PKK, claims political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website. But there is a dilemma. Iran has its own problem with its own restive Kurdish minority, is it could get its own hands burned.

Turkey, the United States and the European Union consider the PKK a terrorist organization.

Iran unshackled

Despite the dangers of confronting Tehran, analyst Yesilada suggests Ankara believes it has little choice. Iran, unshackled from international sanctions from its nuclear expansion, will hem Turkey in and we will be unable to trade with our Arab partners, once it completes its Syria and Iraq project, predicts Yesilada.

Analysts suggest Iranian-Turkish tensions are set to continue to rise as they jockey for influence.

Both countries, historic regional powers, have a long history of managing their conflicting interests and balancing rivalry, and cooperation is often how bilateral relations are characterized. Idiz predicts the latest bout of tensions will test that balancing act.

We are coming to a very decisive moment in Syria and Iraq and these [Iranian-Turkish] tensions are a product of that. But the two countries have a tradition of trying not to allow differences to boil over. But what this latest diplomatic exchange has done has shown everybody that the two countries are very much on different sides in the Middle East. The danger is if some kind of accident, if there is a clash between Iranian and Turkish-supported forces, then things could get out of hand given both countries have very nationalistic populations, said Idiz.

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Tension Rising Between Regional Rivals Turkey and Iran - Voice of America

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 23, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Coalition military forces conducted 24 strikes consisting of 32 engagements against ISIS targets in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed four oil refinement stills and a vehicle.

-- Near Bab, four strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed a vehicle-borne bomb.

-- Near Shadaddi, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed four fighting positions and an ISIS headquarters.

-- Near Raqqa, seven strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and an ISIS staging area and destroyed three pump jacks, a command-and-control node, a fighting position and a tactical vehicle.

-- Near Tanf, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two tactical vehicles.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, three strikes destroyed seven oil separation tanks, and oil wellhead, an oil tanker truck and an oil inlet manifold.

-- Near Palmyra, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed four tactical vehicles.

-- Near Tamakh, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tactical vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Coalition military forces conducted 14 strikes consisting of 62 engagements against ISIS targets in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Beiji, three strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units; destroyed a tactical vehicle and a heavy machine gun; and suppressed a mortar team.

-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed three mortar systems, two ISIS-held buildings, two vehicle-bomb factories, a supply cache, a fighting position, a front-end loader, an excavator, a dump truck, a generator trailer, a weapons cache and a vehicle; damaged 15 supply routes and three tunnels; and suppressed 17 mortar teams and an artillery team.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed a weapons cache.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three ISIS-held building and a vehicle.

-- Near Tal Afar, four strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and an ISIS staging area and destroyed two weapons caches, a vehicle-borne bomb, a front-end loader, an improvised-bomb factory and an ISIS-held building.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense

Iraqi forces have regained control of the airport in Mosul, part of a months-long operation to push ISIS militants from the key city.

The airport largely destroyed by ISIS forces is now fully under Iraqi Federal Police control, said Col. Abdel Amir Mohamed, commander of the Rapid Response Unit of the Federal Police.

Brett McGurk, the US envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition, congratulated Iraq for the victory.

Congratulations to Iraqi forces for completing complex maneuver ops to secure #Mosul airport from #ISIS terrorists, he tweeted. #ISIS is now trapped.

Iraqi forces launched a new bid to retake the western parts of the city on Sunday after declaring in late January that the east had been liberated.

Latest developments

Joint Operations Command says forces killed many ISIS militants and defused 60 IEDs on Thursday Iraqi forces have faced ISIS suicide car bombs and improvised explosive devices. Counter-terrorism forces have stormed the al-Ghazlani military base west of the airport. There has been heavy fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS at Mosuls main electrical power station. Residents say ISIS is searching homes for cell phones. Residents from eastern Mosul, under Iraqi control, send letters of support to the residents in the west.

Federal police and rapid response forces, backed by drones and heavy artillery, advanced from several positions to storm the airport, Lt. Gen. Raid Shakir Jaudat said in a statement earlier Thursday. ISIS has held the airport since 2014 and has largely destroyed its infrastructure.

Sources have told CNN in recent months that ISIS has sabotaged the airstrip there to prevent its use.

The airport is on a large area of land in that city that is a symbolically important target for Iraqi forces. The area is an access point into the city from the southwest of the country. Taking it puts Iraqi forces in control of an area on the rivers west bank for the first time.

Forces took the airport in a few hours and appear to be moving swiftly, taking back control of two villages Yarmouk and Tal al-Rayan near the airport and the al-Ghazlani military camp.

They have also taken control of an ISIS weapons storage warehouse, former ISIS headquarters and the barracks at al-Ghazlani, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, a spokesperson for the Iraqi operation told CNN.

On top of that, the Joint Operations Command center reported that forces destroyed many ISIS vehicles, defused 60 improvised explosive devices and killed many ISIS militants on Thursday.

But the push to take western Mosul is expected to take some time the east of the city took more than three months to take from ISIS control.

A city split

A resident of western Mosul told CNN that groups of ISIS fighters had been searching homes in one neighborhood near the rivers bank Thursday morning, looking for cell phones and residents using them. ISIS forbids the use of cell phones and has executed residents in the past for using them.

ISIS frequently accuses residents of passing information to Iraqi security forces, and metes out harsh punishment to people caught using phones.

The east and west is divided by the Tigris River, and US-led coalition airstrikes have damaged all five bridges connecting the two sides in an effort to contain the militants in the west.

Residents of eastern Mosul have written letters of solidarity that the Iraqi Air Force dropped over western neighborhoods Wednesday.

CNN went aboard an Air Force plane and met two residents of the east who had written some of the letters. One, Ghassan Mohammed Saadoun, said that he had received similar reassuring letters from other Iraqis when the east was being liberated.

He said ISIS had tried to confiscate those letters.

I have lived that experience and seen these letters and leaflets, but ISIS tried to prevent us from seeing them as much as they can. When that happened, the children of ISIS went out into the streets and collected these letters early in the morning hours so no one could read them, he said.

One of the letters read: Do not be afraid of the security forces they are coming to protect and to liberate you from injustice. Collaborate with them and dont be afraid of them. They are your sons. We wish you safety and security.

Another read: We ask Allah to ease the pain that you are in. We pray to Allah to protect you. We ask you to please stay indoors for your safety when security forces arrive in your areas. Allah bless you our people.

Rights groups fear high death toll

Iraqi commanders say the battle for western Mosul will be the toughest fight yet against ISIS. Over the past two years, the militant group has dedicated much of its defensive preparation to the western part of the city.

The city has networks of alleys that are impassable by military vehicles. Human rights organizations fear that the use of heavy weaponry in the narrow streets of the old city where an estimated 650,000 civilians are still trapped would probably result in very high human toll.

Meanwhile, US troops operating around Mosul have been in exchanges of fire with ISIS, and some have been wounded in the last six to eight weeks as they have pushed closer to key frontlines, military officials acknowledged Tuesday.

A US defense official confirmed some had been injured on the battlefield but declined to give numbers, saying that the injured had been evacuated from the battlefield.

The offensive to retake Mosul began in October in an extraordinary union of Iraqi troops and militia representing minority ethnic and religious groups that have often stood on opposing sides in Iraqs history.

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Iraq retakes Mosul airport; 'ISIS is now trapped,' US envoy says - fox6now.com

ISIS is on the path to poverty, according to a new joint study, Caliphate in Decline: An Estimate of Islamic States Financial Fortunes, from the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Ernst & Young.

The terror group is apparently suffering from financial difficulties, to put it mildly. Facts and figures show that over the last two years, revenues for ISIS have fallen by more than 50 percent.

Still, study authors have concluded that its not yet time to breathe easy about the groups dismantling.

The decline in revenues may not have an immediate effect on the groups ability to carry out terrorist attacks outside its territory, the study said, Breitbart reported. While hurting Islamic State finances puts pressure on the organization and its state-building project, wider efforts will continue to be necessary to ultimately defeat it.

The authors also point to the fact ISIS is continually recruiting, and reaching out to other sources of potential income.

Read Isis Rising: Prelude to a neo-Ottoman Caliphate to find out what the terror camp leaders really want to do.

One looming possibility?

Afghanistan.

The countrys rich with opium, and ISIS could tap further into that drug trade, which includes the derivative heroin, to bolster its income. In fact, some estimates say ISIS can derive up to $50 billion annually from sales of Afghan-tied opium and heroin.

From the report, as cited by Breitbart:

The groups most significant sources of revenue are closely tied to its territory. They are: (1) taxes and fees; (2) oil; and (3) looting, confiscations, and fines. We have found no hard evidence that foreign donations continue to be significant. Similarly, revenues from the sale of antiquities and kidnap for ransom, while difficult to quantify, are unlikely to have been major sources of income.

There are no signs yet that the group has created significant new funding streams that would make up for recent losses. With current trends continuing, the Islamic States business model will soon fail, the study continued.

The study authors say the reason ISIS is currently facing financial trouble is that members constantly rely too heavily on the populations and territories they take over as sources of money.

According to figures provided by the Global Coalition, by November 2016 Islamic State had lost 62 percent of its mid-2014 peak territory in Iraq, and 30 per cent in Syria. From a revenue perspective, this means fewer people and businesses to tax and less control over natural resources such as oil fields, the report stated. There are good reasons to believe that Islamic State revenues will further decline. In particular, capturing Mosul, the caliphates commercial capital, will have a significant detrimental effect on Islamic State finances.

Read Isis Rising: Prelude to a neo-Ottoman Caliphate to find out what the terror camp leaders really want to do.

More:
ISIS 'poised to go broke in Iraq, Syria' - WND.com

New York Times

Jim Mattis to Baghdad: 'We're Not in Iraq to Seize Anybody's Oil' New York Times BAGHDAD Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, on the first visit by a senior Trump administration official to Iraq, worked on Monday to repair breaches of trust with Iraq's leaders caused by his boss just as the two sides began a major offensive to oust the ... Iraq Is a Huge Opportunity for TrumpWall Street Journal (subscription) Trump's defense chief, in Iraq, says: We're not here for your oilCNBC Defense Chief Contradicts Trump on Iraq and OilNewsweek Washington Post -Chicago Tribune all 385 news articles »

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Jim Mattis to Baghdad: 'We're Not in Iraq to Seize Anybody's Oil' - New York Times