A burnt vehicle belonging to Iraqi security forces is pictured at a checkpoint in east Mosul, one day after radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of the city.
Reuters /Ankara
Turkey warned on Wednesday it would retaliate if any of its 80 nationals, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, seized by an al Qaeda splinter group during a lightning advance in northern Iraq were harmed.
Ambassadors of the NATO defence alliance held an emergency meeting in Brussels at Turkey's request. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held talks with President Abdullah Gul, his intelligence chief and the chief of general staff and talked to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden about the developments.
Sunni insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized 49 people from the Turkish consulate in the city of Mosul early on Wednesday, including the consul-general, family members and Turkish special forces.
The militants are also holding 31 Turkish truck drivers hostage at a power station in Mosul, abducted on Tuesday as ISIL seized Iraq's second biggest city in a show of strength against the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.
The rapid advance of ISIL, which overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on Iraq's biggest oil refinery, poses an additional threat to Turkey, which is already dealing with the group's seizure of patches of territory just over its southern border in Syria.
"Right now we're engaged in calm crisis management, considering our citizens' security," Davutoglu said in New York after cancelling meetings at the U.N. to return to Turkey.
"This should not be misunderstood. Any harm to our citizens and staff would be met with the harshest retaliation," he told reporters in comments broadcast on Turkish television.
Turkey has close trade and political links with the Kurdish-controlled area to the north of Mosul that has not, for the moment at least, been targeted by ISIL. It sees a particular role in protecting the interests of the Turkmen ethnic minority in that area.
