Staff of the Turkish Consulate General in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where gunmen seized the group “Islamic State”, returned home safely. The Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, reports Reuters . Later President Tayyip Erdogan revealed some details of the operation.
In mid-June it was reported that militants captured in Mosul IG 49 employees of the Consulate General of Turkey. According to some reports, in the ranks of extremists, there was disagreement about the hostage-taking and the need for their release – one of the groups within the IG believed that diplomats should be released, reminiscent of ITAR-TASS.
After the seizure of diplomats possible Turkish participation in a coalition against the “Islamic state” called limited. It was assumed that for this reason, Turkey has refused to provide the United States Air Force base in Incirlik for the operational needs of the operation, agreeing to allow its use only for the coalition aviation logistics.
As specified, the hostages were taken to the home of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said on national TV that the release was made possible by the successful operation of National Intelligence: “The operation was planned in advance, figure out all the nuances. It was held last night in complete secrecy and ended in the morning. I thank the Prime Minister for this -Minister and all who took part. “
