Insurgents in Iraq have reportedly kidnapped 48 Turks. The group of people, including three children and several members of Turkey’s special forces, were taken from the Turkish consulate in Mosul.<br /><br />Turkish authorities have confirmed nobody in the group has been harmed. <br /><br />Al-Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized the country’s second-biggest city on Tuesday. Mosul is an important strategic location for ISIL: it is located on routes linking Iraq to Turkey and Syria.<br /><br />Half a million people have fled towards the Kurdish city of Erbil to the north of Mosul.<br /><br />Turkey’s interior minister Efkan Ala said that his country would react with “appropriate measures” to the news.<br /><br />Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held an emergency meeting to discuss the latest developments.
