Turkish hostages held by IS in Iraq released

Dozens of Turkish hostages seized by Islamic State (IS) in the north Iraqi city of Mosul in June are now back in Turkey, PM Ahmet Davutoglu says.

The 46 hostages included diplomats and their families as well as soldiers.

They were seized from Turkey’s consulate after IS militants seized Mosul in a rapid advance in June.

Turkey has refused direct involvement in the military campaign against IS partly because of fears over the hostages’ safety.

Davutoglu said that the hostages were all in good health and that they were released early on Saturday.

They were being taken to the southern Turkish city of Sanliurfa by the Turkish intelligence agency, he added.

“I am sharing joyful news which as a nation we have been waiting for,’’ he said.

“In the early hours our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back to our country. They have crossed into Turkey and I am on my way to see them.’’

Davutoglu was cutting short a visit to Azerbaijan to meet the released hostages.

He did not give details on the circumstances of their release.

Earlier reports said 49 Turkish hostages had been freed but it later emerged that three of those being held in Mosul were Iraqis. The fate of the three Iraqi hostages is not yet clear.

More than 30 Turkish lorry drivers, who were also seized in Mosul in June, were freed a month later but details of their release were also not made public.

IS has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. Estimates say the group could have up to 30,000 fighters.

The US has carried out more than 170 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq since mid-August, supporting Iraqi government and Kurdish ground troops.

French jets carried out their first strikes on Friday, hitting an IS depot in north-eastern Iraq.

Also on Friday, Turkey opened a stretch of its south-eastern border to thousands of Syrian Kurds fleeing an IS advance.

Turkish troops had earlier blocked them from crossing, triggering angry protests from Turkish Kurds in the border village of Dikemetas.

Turkey has been under pressure from Western countries to tighten up its borders with Syria and Iraq and to stem the flow of foreign fighters joining the militants.

More than 847,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into Turkey since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.

More than 30 nations have joined a US-led coalition to take on IS militants, but Turkey has said it will only allow humanitarian and logistical operations from a Nato air base on its soil.

Syria and Iran have been excluded from the coalition. However, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Iran still had a role to play in tackling IS.

Chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council, Kerry said the coalition was not only military in nature.

“It’s about taking out an entire network, decimating and discrediting a militant cult masquerading as a religious movement,” Kerry said.

He added: “There is a role for nearly every country in the world to play, including Iran.”

On Thursday, the US Senate approved Obama’s plan to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels to fight IS.

US air strikes are now expected in Syria, but Obama said he will not authorise a ground operation in Iraq or Syria.