Turkish hostages freed by IS

Forty nine hostages who were seized by Islamic militants in Iraq have been freed and safely returned to Turkey, ending Turkey’s most serious hostage crisis, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu said today.

The hostages were seized from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, Iraq on June 11, when the Islamic State group overran the city in its surge to seize large swathes of Iraq and Syria.