Iraq

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has defended Ankara's
decision to keep its consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul open despite
the approach of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

One of the 32 Turkish truck drivers taken hostage by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq on June 10 has told daily Hürriyet that they expect to be released soon.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced via Twitter that Ankara was maintaining constant contact with its Mosul consulate and stressing that all necessary precautions had been taken, only a few hours after reports that the city had been seized by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

Bulgaria is to open new trade offices in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, in northern Iraq  at Erbil, Algiers, Tunisia, Ghana, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, in the US in Chicago, Hungary and in Cyprus.

49 Turkish employees, including Turkey's consul general, have been kidnapped by the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Soldiers from Turkish Special Forces and children of diplomats are reportedly among the hostages

Islamist militants seized the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul on June 11 and kidnapped the head of the diplomatic mission and 24 staff members, a police colonel said.

"ISIL members managed to kidnap the Turkish consul and 24 of his guards and assistants," the officer said, referring to powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), AFP reported.

"Al-Qaeda offshoot" takes control of Iraqi town

MOSUL -- According to some reports, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have fled the Iraqi town of Mosul after ISIS fighters took control of it.

The group is said to be made up of Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qaeda.

Bulgaria will open trade missions in 20 countries by end-2014, according to a media statement of the government.

The new trade representations are to be opened in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, northern Iraq (Erbil), Algiers, Tunisia, Ghana, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, US (Chicago), Hungary and Cyprus.

The number of Turkish truck drivers taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq has risen from 28 to 32 on June 11.

A day after Iranian President Hasan Rouhani called on Turkey to jointly fight against regional extremist terrorism for the stability of both countries and of the Middle East region, jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, including Mosul, and were heading toward the province of Salahaddin, on the road to Baghdad.