ISIS: Remaining and Expanding

[Magda Hassan]

ISIL kidnaps Turkish consul, 24 others in Iraq: Police

Faruk BALIKÇI- Okan KONURALP

An ISIL-affiliated Twitter account has a photo showing militants pray on June 11

ISIL takes more Turkish drivers hostage in northern Iraq as 500,000 flee Mosul

Islamist militants seized the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul on June 11 and kidnapped the head of the diplomatic mission and 24 staff members, a police colonel said.

"ISIL members managed to kidnap the Turkish consul and 24 of his guards and assistants," the officer said, referring to powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), AFP reported.

The ISIL, which continued its offensive in northern Iraq on June 11, stormed the Turkish Consulate in Mosul at noon, according to media reports.

Al Jazeera Turkish reported that militants took diplomats hostage and brought them to the ISIL headquarters in the city.

Efforts are under way to ensure the safety of diplomatic staff, two Turkish government sources told Reuters.


Media outlets affiliated with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani's Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party reported that the ISIL "hit" the consulate, but added that the diplomats were "evacuated and now safe."

"ISIL attacked the Turkish consulate at noon. A group of consulate staff left the building as hostages. The Turkish consul was a person who was frequently visiting the Governor's Office in Mosul," Bashar Kiki, the speaker of the Mosul Provincial Assembly, said during a live program on Kurdistan TV.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official has said the reports "have yet to be confirmed, but they are looking into them," according to private broadcaster CNN Türk.

An emergency meeting on the developments in Iraq is currently being held at the prime ministerial residency with the participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Deputy Prime Minister BeÅŸir Atalay and National Intelligence Agency (MÄ°T) chief Hakan Fidan.

Meanwhile, 32 Turkish truck drivers remain as hostages of ISIL, which has sprung from the country's second-largest city to other Iraqi provinces, including Saladin.

Sunni insurgents from an al Qaeda splinter group, the ISIL, had seized Mosul on June 10 in a show of strength against Iraq's Shi'ite-led government.
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