Turkey has agreed to gradually withdraw forces from a strategic military base in northern Iraq and hand over its control to the Iraqi government, following a meeting between the two countries' leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Iraq, meanwhile, pledged to remove armed groups that Turkey considers security threats from the region of Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq, according to a joint statement issued after the meeting late Wednesday between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.