Erdogan urges ISIL to free kidnapped Turks in Ramadan
Iran Press TV
Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:48PM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Takfiri ISIL militants in Iraq to free 49 people kidnapped from the Turkish consulate in Mosul.
Erdogan called on the militant group late Wednesday to release the 49 people before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
'If they are true believers they need to release our brothers. That's what we expect,' the official Anadolu Agency reported the Turkish Premier as saying.
Ramadan will end on July 27 in Turkey.
The militants stormed the Turkish consulate in Mosul on June 11, kidnapping 49 people, including the consul, staff members, special operations teams and three children.
They also seized 32 truck drivers in Mosul on June 9. The drivers were later released on July 3.
The crisis in Iraq escalated after the ISIL militants took control of Mosul in an attack on June 10, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Tikrit was later taken back by the Iraqi army forces.
An estimated 1.2 million people have been displaced in Iraq so far this year, according to estimates by the UN.
The ISIL terrorists have vowed to continue their raid towards Baghdad. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that the country's security forces would confront the terrorists, calling the seizure of Mosul a "conspiracy'.
Soldiers of the Iraqi army have been engaged in heavy fighting with the terrorists in different fronts and have so far been able to push them back in several areas.
Senior Muslim clerics have condemned the ISIL atrocities, including mass executions and rape.
SAB/AB
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