ISTANBUL: Forty-six Turks, including diplomats and children, were freed yesterday more than three months after the Islamic State (IS) jihadists kidnapped them from Turkey’s consulate in Mosul as militants overran the northern Iraqi city and swept through much of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland. “Early in the morning our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back into our country. At 5am they entered the country,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, adding all were in good health. In Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement that Turkey had carried out a “pre-planned, detailed and secret operation”.
