September 20, 2014
Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria raided the Turkish consulate in June and seized 49 people, including Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz.
Others abducted included
his family, children and other citizens who were at the consulate in
Mosul at the time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
ISIS consolidating control of Mosul
Of the total, three were
local employees and 46 were Turkish citizens. All were freed and the
latter are now in their home country, Turkish authorities said.
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On the front lines fighting ISIS
It's unclear how they were freed, but Erdogan thanked Turkish intelligence officials in a statement on his website.
"I thank ... every single
member of the national intelligence agency from the director to the
field operatives," he said. "I congratulate them for their big success
from the bottom of my heart."
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described it as a late-night operation.
"At around 11:30 at
night, this rescue effort reached its final stage," he told a crowd
waving flags in Ankara. "Be assured that for months we worked toward
this. I thank those in our national intelligence agency who worked
relentlessly and with great sacrifice."
Mosul, a city of 1.6
million, collapsed swiftly when the militants attacked on June 10. The
heavily armed radicals overran police stations, freed more than 1,000
prisoners from the local jail and took over the international airport.
American-trained Iraqi forces ran in the face of the onslaught, leaving behind uniforms, weapons and armored vehicles.
ISIS, which calls itself
the Islamic State, has declared that it has established a "caliphate"
spanning large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Turkey has been wary of
joining a U.S. coalition to battle the militants because of the
hostages, according to Faysal Itani, a fellow at the Atlantic Council's
Center for the Middle East.
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