ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has captured the Turkish consulate in Mosul, while reassuring Turkey that its diplomats are safe and will not be harmed.
“The diplomats are safe and we are treating them well,” an ISIS commander in charge of the diplomats told Rudaw by telephone.
He said the embassy staff was removed from the consulate building due to the tense situation in the city, which the insurgents captured from Iraqi forces without barely a fight only days ago.
“We assure their safety and will return them to their country,” said the Islamic commander. “They have nothing to fear because they are Sunnis and of the Hanafi faith.”
The Sunni extremist ISIS has said that its fight is only with Iraq’s Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
The ISIS commander, who did not want to be named, said that the consul general was being kept inside the governor’s office, and his staff at another location.
Rudaw reached the ISIS after a reporter called the cell phone of the Turkish consul and the call was answered by the commander.
“One of the diplomats has a dog with him and we provided food and water for his pet, too,” the commander told Rudaw.
A short distance from Mosul, in the Kurdish city of Shangal, local residents have taken up arms to protect their city against a possible attack by ISIS. But Kurdish security forces stationed there have been reassuring people they will be protected, Rudaw’s correspondent in Shangal said.
Rudaw reporter Issa Barakat said that the Kurdish areas are calm and there is no sign of ISIS activity in the area.
Islamic militants have now broadened their fight against Iraqi troops in other parts of the country, with Tikrit and Samarra -- two important Sunni cities -- now under their control.
Earlier today, the ISIS launched a small-scale attack against the town of Tel Ward west of Kirkuk, but it was repulsed after a few hours of confrontation. A security official said the town was under the full control the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
“The ISIS fighters only fought with snipers and didn’t get close to the town,” the security official told Rudaw.
Throughout Kirkuk province, Iraqi troops have reportedly abandoned their posts, and in most areas left their weapons and arsenals intact.
The seizure of heavy weapons by the ISIS has emboldened the insurgents, bolstering their muscle against the better-armed Iraqi forces.
Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim said the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from the province was not pre-planned, even though he had “doubted the ability of the Iraqi army to do their duty.”
A special team from the Kurdistan parliament visited Kirkuk to investigate the situation there. Karim told a press conference that the situation in Kirkuk and most areas was calm.
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