(VOVworld)- Security in Iraq faced grim threats on Wednesday when 24 members of the Turkish consulate in the northern city of Mosul were abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL has gained control of the town of Tikrit, northwest of Baghdad.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called an emergency meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay and his National Intelligence Agency chief to discuss the situation. ISIL insurgents killed 15 Iraqi security officers in Kirkuk province one day after kidnapping them. ISIL is the strongest insurgent group in Iraq and has been widening its operation into neighboring Syria. ISIL took part inriots in the city of Deir Ezzor, Syria, in April, trying to establish a Muslim government along the Syria-Iraq border.