Dozens of hostages seized by Islamic State (IS) from the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have been freed and are back in Turkey.
The 49 Turkish hostages seized by fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June have been brought safely back to Turkey by the country's intelligence agency, according to Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's prime minister.
The hostages, including Turkish diplomats, soldiers and children, were seized from Turkey's consulate in June.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday the freed hostages were being brought to the southern Turkish city of Sanliurfa. He flew to Sanliurfa and brought the hostages back to Ankara on his plane.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described the hostages' release as "joyful news"
He did not give details of their release but broadcaster NTV reported that Turkey had not paid a ransom. It did not say how it obtained the information.
"Today at 5am we brought our citizens who were detained in Iraq to our country. From my heart, I thank the families who maintained their dignity," Davutoglu said on his Twitter account.
The seizure of the hostages had left Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance and a key US ally in the Middle East, hamstrung in its response to the threat from ISIL fighters over its southern borders in Iraq and Syria.
The group has beheaded two US journalists and a British aid worker who were working in Syria as payback for air strikes that the US has launched against them in Iraq.
"I am sharing joyful news which as a nation we have been waiting for," Davutoglu said.
"After intense efforts that lasted days and weeks, in the early hours, our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back to our country.
"They have crossed into Turkey and I am on my way to see them."
They were all in good health, he added.
More than 30 Turkish lorry drivers, who were also seized in Mosul in June, were freed a month later but details of their release were not made public.
Turkish truck drivers boarding a flight to Turkey after being released by Iraqi Islamic militants
IS has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. Estimates say the group could have up to 30,000 fighters.
The US has carried out more than 170 air strikes in Iraq since August. French jets carried out their first strikes on Friday.
Meanwhile, Turkish officials said about 45,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing an advance by IS had crossed a stretch of Turkey's south-west border opened for them on Friday.
Turkish troops had earlier blocked them from crossing, triggering angry protests from Turkish Kurds.
Turkey has been under pressure from Western countries to tighten up its borders with Syria and Iraq and to stem the flow of foreign fighters joining the militants.
More than 847,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into Turkey since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.
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