Hostage

Britain has reacted with horror to the beheading of hostage Alan Henning, who many had dared to hope might be spared after a cross-community appeal for his release

It seems that Turkey is finally getting off the fence with regards to confronting the ISIL head-on now that it has secured the release of its hostages held by the group

The staff at Turkey’s consulate in Mosul were no match for the masses of ISIL fighters who besieged the building, one of the 49 freed hostages tells the Hürriyet Daily News

An Algerian group linked to ISIL jihadists claimed the kidnapping of a French national and threatened to kill the hostage within 24 hours unless Paris halts air strikes on the ISIL in Iraq

Syrian rebels Liwa al-Tawhid released 50 members of ISIL in a swap deal that ended with the release of 49 hostages

The release of the Turkish hostages held by the Islamic Sate of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) will continue to be speculated about for some time yet given that the government is being cryptic about the whole matter.

Saving 49 hostages from the hands of the new-generation terrorists like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after 101 days in captivity would not be an easy job for any country on the planet, let alone Turkey.

The hostages have been saved; this is what is important. I am not saying that how this happened is unimportant – that would be unfair to those who worked hard in this process. We can only thank them.

The rescue of the hostages was the best news of the past weeks. Turkey has overcome this difficulty with a lot of patience; now it faces other difficulties.

More details are emerging about the rescue of 49 hostages from Turkey’s Consulate General in Mosul, with President Erdoğan denying the payment of any ransom or help from outside powers, but intimating a political bargain