$Stock*Shop*Charts*News*Option$

[sludgehound]

ISIS grabs Turkish consulate in Mosul

Stupids should know better than to mess with the Turkman.
Second part below has Iraq military analysis, and they are blaming US for the situation.

ISTANBUL--Islamist militants' seizure of the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday stoked concerns Ankara could be forced to intervene in the fast-spreading insurgency as officials rushed to handle the matter through back-door diplomacy.
Turkey's prime minister called emergency meetings with government and military leaders after Sunni insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham , or ISIS, stormed the consulate and took 49 people hostage. The hostages inside included diplomats, security, administrative staff and three children, a government official said.
The developments underscored the potentially dangerous political fallout from the insurgents' dramatic battlefield gains.
Turkey's Chief of Military Staff Necdet Ozel and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday evening, hours after the premier gathered top national security advisers, including spy chief Hakan Fidan to evaluate the situation.
In Brussels , Turkey convened an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to inform its allies about the fighting in Mosul and the capture of the Turkish mission.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu , who will fly home early from a New York trip to a United Nations gathering on combating terrorism, said Turkey was trying to negotiate the hostages' freedom. But he also issued a warning to the captors.
"We are using efficient crisis management to secure the safe release of our citizens...But if anything should happen to our citizens, we will retaliate. Nobody should test Turkey ," Mr. Davutoglu said.
The news came as ISIS's startling military advance continued a day after the transnational group seized Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in a show of strength against Iraq's Shiite-led government. By Wednesday afternoon ISIS had taken the provincial capital of Tikrit , according to security forces there, and proceeded down the Tigris River toward Baghdad , leaving Iraq's battered security forces in a state of open retreat.
ISIS's capture of the mission comes after the group kidnapped 31 Turkish truck drivers Tuesday while they were carrying diesel from Turkey's southern port of Iskenderun to a power plant in Mosul .
"There is an emergency situation right now," a senior government official said. "(ISIS) is a very worrying organization and we can't be sure about how they're treating people and we don't know what to expect from them."
The storming of the consulate underscored how the gains of ISIS are reverberating beyond Iraq and Syria and threatening to draw in regional heavyweights such as Turkey , with potentially significant geopolitical consequences. Analysts said the militants appeared to specifically target the Turkish consulate, which had no obvious strategic or military value, raising the prospect that they would use the captives for political propaganda purposes.
"In the short term, our priority should be to get our diplomats freed without harm," said Sinan Ulgen , a former Turkish diplomat who is now chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies . "If they are harmed, then Turkey would have no other choice but to launch a military operation to free them. In the longer term, we may be seeing the unraveling of the regional balance with far-reaching implications."
Turkey , which classifies ISIS as a terrorist organization, has long been accused of backing radical Islamist groups inside the Syrian opposition, a charge its government has repeatedly denied. Earlier this year, Turkish leaders vowed to respond militarily if ISIS militants in Syria carried out threats to attack the tomb of Suleyman Shah , whose grandson founded the Ottoman Empire. The site, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) into Syria , is Turkey's only territory outside its borders and is guarded by Turkish soldiers. Turkish security analysts have warned that the rise of ISIS has left Turkey's southern border exposed to attacks.
The concern spread to Turkish markets, where assets weakened significantly as investors digested the risks from rising regional tensions. Iraq has recently emerged as a significant trading partner for Turkey , whose annual exports to its southern neighbor since 2010 doubled to about $12 billion last year, ranking the country second only behind Germany .
Some commentators asked why the consulate wasn't evacuated given the apparent threat from the ISIS advance. Mr. Davutoglu said in a tweet Tuesday evening that "all precautionary measures are in place for the safety of our GC (General Consul) in Mosul ."
On Wednesday, Mr. Davutoglu said preparations to evacuate the consulate couldn't be carried out because of the dangerous security situation on the streets in Mosul .
The oil-rich city of Mosul , which is about 120 kilometers from Ankara , has long held strategic importance for Turkey . Ankara reluctantly ceded the territory to Iraq in 1920s after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire but has maintained strong economic and cultural links with the province, which also has a substantial population of ethnic Turkmen.
Earlier Wednesday Mr. Gul said the extremists' gains in Iraq were "unacceptable" for Turkey and that Ankara was assessing its options. " Turkey is watching it very closely, both militarily and politically; there are coordination meetings at the ministry and armed forces," he said in Ankara , according to Turkey's state news agency, Anadolu.
Ayla Albayrak contributed to this article.
Write to Joe Parkinson at [e-mail] and Emre Peker at [e-mail]
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-11-14 2003ET
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
-----------------------

ISTANBUL--Islamist militants' seizure of the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday stoked concerns Ankara could be forced to intervene in the fast-spreading insurgency as officials rushed to handle the matter through back-door diplomacy.
Turkey's prime minister called emergency meetings with government and military leaders after Sunni insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham , or ISIS, stormed the consulate and took 49 people hostage. The hostages inside included diplomats, security, administrative staff and three children, a government official said.
The developments underscored the potentially dangerous political fallout from the insurgents' dramatic battlefield gains.
Turkey's Chief of Military Staff Necdet Ozel and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday evening, hours after the premier gathered top national security advisers, including spy chief Hakan Fidan to evaluate the situation.
In Brussels , Turkey convened an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to inform its allies about the fighting in Mosul and the capture of the Turkish mission.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu , who will fly home early from a New York trip to a United Nations gathering on combating terrorism, said Turkey was trying to negotiate the hostages' freedom. But he also issued a warning to the captors.
"We are using efficient crisis management to secure the safe release of our citizens...But if anything should happen to our citizens, we will retaliate. Nobody should test Turkey ," Mr. Davutoglu said.
The news came as ISIS's startling military advance continued a day after the transnational group seized Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in a show of strength against Iraq's Shiite-led government. By Wednesday afternoon ISIS had taken the provincial capital of Tikrit , according to security forces there, and proceeded down the Tigris River toward Baghdad , leaving Iraq's battered security forces in a state of open retreat.
ISIS's capture of the mission comes after the group kidnapped 31 Turkish truck drivers Tuesday while they were carrying diesel from Turkey's southern port of Iskenderun to a power plant in Mosul .
"There is an emergency situation right now," a senior government official said. "(ISIS) is a very worrying organization and we can't be sure about how they're treating people and we don't know what to expect from them."
The storming of the consulate underscored how the gains of ISIS are reverberating beyond Iraq and Syria and threatening to draw in regional heavyweights such as Turkey , with potentially significant geopolitical consequences. Analysts said the militants appeared to specifically target the Turkish consulate, which had no obvious strategic or military value, raising the prospect that they would use the captives for political propaganda purposes.
"In the short term, our priority should be to get our diplomats freed without harm," said Sinan Ulgen , a former Turkish diplomat who is now chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies . "If they are harmed, then Turkey would have no other choice but to launch a military operation to free them. In the longer term, we may be seeing the unraveling of the regional balance with far-reaching implications."
Turkey , which classifies ISIS as a terrorist organization, has long been accused of backing radical Islamist groups inside the Syrian opposition, a charge its government has repeatedly denied. Earlier this year, Turkish leaders vowed to respond militarily if ISIS militants in Syria carried out threats to attack the tomb of Suleyman Shah , whose grandson founded the Ottoman Empire. The site, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) into Syria , is Turkey's only territory outside its borders and is guarded by Turkish soldiers. Turkish security analysts have warned that the rise of ISIS has left Turkey's southern border exposed to attacks.
The concern spread to Turkish markets, where assets weakened significantly as investors digested the risks from rising regional tensions. Iraq has recently emerged as a significant trading partner for Turkey , whose annual exports to its southern neighbor since 2010 doubled to about $12 billion last year, ranking the country second only behind Germany .
Some commentators asked why the consulate wasn't evacuated given the apparent threat from the ISIS advance. Mr. Davutoglu said in a tweet Tuesday evening that "all precautionary measures are in place for the safety of our GC (General Consul) in Mosul ."
On Wednesday, Mr. Davutoglu said preparations to evacuate the consulate couldn't be carried out because of the dangerous security situation on the streets in Mosul .
The oil-rich city of Mosul , which is about 120 kilometers from Ankara , has long held strategic importance for Turkey . Ankara reluctantly ceded the territory to Iraq in 1920s after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire but has maintained strong economic and cultural links with the province, which also has a substantial population of ethnic Turkmen.
Earlier Wednesday Mr. Gul said the extremists' gains in Iraq were "unacceptable" for Turkey and that Ankara was assessing its options. " Turkey is watching it very closely, both militarily and politically; there are coordination meetings at the ministry and armed forces," he said in Ankara , according to Turkey's state news agency, Anadolu.
Ayla Albayrak contributed to this article.
Write to Joe Parkinson at [e-mail] and Emre Peker at [e-mail]
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-11-14 2003ET
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.