Turkey defends actions over consulate seizure in Iraq, 80 still held
 

By Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Diplomats and soldiers trapped inside Turkey's consulate in the **rthern Iraqi city of Mosul had ** option but to surrender this week after hundreds of heavily armed Islamist militants surrounded the building, the foreign ministry said on Saturday. The seizure by insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Wednesday of 49 Turks, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, has prompted criticism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government for failing to foresee the danger and evacuate the consulate sooner. The ISIL offensive threatens to dismember Iraq and leaves Turkey facing a widening Islamist insurgency in two of its southern neighbors, with ISIL also making territorial gains in Syria near the Turkish border. Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru said every security precaution had been taken at the consulate but that events unfolded quickly and that Iraqi security forces stationed around the building abandoned their posts as ISIL seized Mosul.

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