Militants seize Iraq's second-largest city Mosul, kidnap 28 Turkish truck drivers

Militants seized Iraq's second-largest city June 9, officials said, in another blow to the authorities, who appear incapable of stopping rebel advances.

Overnight, hundreds of gunmen launched an assault on Mosul, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad, engaging in combat with troops and police, they said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has also reportedly taken 28 Turkish truck drivers hostage. The drivers had been travelling from the southern Turkish city of İskenderun to the Geyara Thermal Power Plant in Mosul, Doğan News Agency reported.

A senior Turkish official told Reuters that Turkey is investigating media reports. "These truck drivers were taking fuel to an energy storage and distribution hub. When they arrived, ISIL (militants) were already there," the official told Reuters, adding that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in contact with Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. officials to try to ensure their safe release. "They were detained (by the militants), they haven't been hijacked ... They're unharmed as far as we're aware. When they've finished transferring the fuel we're hoping that they will be freed," another Turkish official said.

Foreign Ministry officials told the Daily News that contact had been lost with 28 drivers in Iraq. They said they could not yet ascertain whether the drivers had been abducted by ISIL militants or were simply stuck somewhere in the region, and were still working to find more details.

The phone lines of the Turkish Consulate in Mosul have been cut, though Ankara can still communicate with Consul Öztürk Yılmaz through his cellphone, Hürriyet's Uğur Ergan has reported. Yılmaz recently survived a bomb attack while traveling to the northern city of...