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How and why were 46 Turkish hostages freed?

Turkey wonders what brought about the freeing of the hostages taken at its Mosul Consulate and why they obtained their liberty now.
An employee (C) at Turkey's consulate in Mosul is welcomed by her relatives at Esenboga airport in Ankara September 20, 2014. Turkish intelligence agents brought 46 hostages seized by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq back to Turkey on Saturday after more than three months in captivity, in what Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan described as a covert rescue operation. Security sources told Reuters the hostages had been released overnight in the town of Tel Abyad on the Syrian side of the border with Tu

Forty-nine staff members of the Turkish Consulate in Mosul (three of whom are Iraqi nationals) who were taken hostage June 11 by the Islamic State (IS) were freed at 6:30 a.m. Sept. 20. Details of the operation are slowly emerging.

According to what Al-Monitor learned from Turkish security sources, the operation was planned by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and closely coordinated with the prime minister's office, the Foreign Ministry and the chief of the Turkish General Staff.

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