46 Turks Kidnapped by IS Militants Released
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2014 THULQADA 26, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net ‘Sesame Street’ Yemen Ozil inspires Ronaldo, Bale set to return clashes ground Arsenal lead Real to to Gulf planes, close to easy win eight-goal rout TV screens5 schools8 at20 Villa of20 Deportivo 46 Turks kidnapped by Max 44º Min 26º IS militants released High Tide 09:37 & 23:12 Hostages freed in secret op Syrian Kurds flood into Turkey Low Tide • 03:55 & 17:07 40 PAGES NO: 16292 150 FILS ANKARA: Forty-six Turks held hostage for months by Islamic State jihadists in northern Iraq were freed and MP stabbed at returned to Turkey yesterday, to emotional family reunions and a triumphant Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The wedding party Turkish diplomats and their children were seized along with special forces officers in their consulate in the city of KUWAIT: MP Mohammad Al-Barrak was attacked Mosul on June 11 as IS militants overran whole swathes of with a knife at a wedding party in Farwaniya at the northern Iraq. weekend. Barrak said after receiving treatment that Davutoglu announced their liberation early yesterday he was at Al-Haifi Hall, and just before offering con- and cut short a visit to Azerbaijan to greet the ex-hostages. gratulations to the groom He gave no details of the circumstances of their release, and his family, three per- though other officials and media reports spoke of a “secret sons approached him, operation”. “Early in the morning our citizens were handed one holding a knife. “My over to us and we brought them back into our country,” brother intervened to Davutoglu told reporters before leaving the Azerbaijani keep him from stabbing capital Baku. Ankara said three of the consulate’s Iraqi staff me, but he was able to had been released earlier by the militants. wound me above my eye- Turkey’s intelligence agency, armed forces and police brow, while the two oth- had worked to secure the hostages’ freedom, Davutoglu ers also tried to attack said after going to meet them in the city of Sanliurfa near me,” he said. “I was taken the Iraqi border and flying on with them to the Turkish to Farwaniya Hospital and capital Ankara. “There are unnamed heroes, like those who received treatment at the brought our citizens back to Turkey. They acted for the Mohammad Al-Barrak emergency department,” sake of our country, for the sake of our people. I salute he added. them,” the prime minister told a cheering crowd of sup- Barrak said the ironic thing is that the person porters waving Turkish flags as he stood atop a bus at who attacked him filed a complaint at Andalus Ankara’s airport. police station, and “I did the same against the three”. He kissed one of the freed hostages, consul-general When asked if he knows the attackers, he said, “Yes, ANKARA: Turkey’s Prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu (center) celebrates with the daughter of Turkey’s Consul Ozturk Yilmaz, on the forehead, after saying the hostages they are from my tribe”. — Al-Rai in Mosul Ozturk Yilmaz (seen behind him) yesterday as he welcomes dozens of freed Turkish hostages held had “stood strong” and unbowed during their captivity. by Islamist militants in northern Iraq for more than three months. — AFP Continued on Page 13 Sisi ready to back anti-IS fight CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi told AP yesterday he is prepared CIA halts spying to give whatever support is needed in the fight against the Islamic State group in West Europe but called for a “comprehensive strategy” WASHINGTON: Stung by the backlash over a to tackle the roots of extremism across German caught selling secrets to the US and the rev- the region. In his first interview with a elations of surveillance by the National Security foreign media outlet since taking office Agency, the CIA has stopped spying on friendly gov- in June, Sisi sought to present himself ernments in Western Europe, according to current and Egypt as being at the vanguard of and former US officials. The pause in decades of espi- confronting militancy, citing it as the rea- onage was designed to give son for his ouster of Egypt’s first freely CIA officers time to examine elected president more than a year ago - whether they were being a move that brought international criti- careful enough and to evalu- cism and strained ties with top ally the ate whether spying on allies United States. He told AP that Egyptians had realized CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel- is worth running the risk of Fattah Al-Sisi confers with an aide discovery, said a US official the danger of “political Islam” and that if he had not acted, the Arab world’s most before an interview with AP at the who has been briefed on the presidential palace yesterday. — AP situation. populous nation would have faced “civil Under the stand-down war” and bloodshed now seen in Iraq rule out sending troops, saying Iraq’s mil- order, case officers in Europe and Syria. “I warned about the great dan- itary is strong enough to fight the mili- largely have been forbidden James Clapper ger a year ago,” he said. “But it was not tants and “it’s not a matter of ground from undertaking “unilateral clear (to others) until the events in Iraq troops from abroad.” TUNIS: Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki waves to onlookers after submitting operations” such as meeting with sources they have and the Islamic State’s sweep” over much Speaking in a chamber in his his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections yesterday. — AFP recruited within allied governments. Such clandes- of that country. Ittihadiya presidential palace, he said it tine meetings are the bedrock of spying. CIA officers Sisi did not elaborate on what support was “very important” to stop foreign are still allowed to meet with their counterparts in Egypt might give to the US-led coalition extremists from joining militant groups Tunisian president to the host country’s intelligence service and conduct aimed at fighting the extremist group. in Syria and Iraq, warning that they will joint operations with host country services. Recently, When asked if Egypt might provide air- return to their home nations, including in stand for re-election unilateral operations targeting third country nation- space access or logistical support for Europe. But he said a broader strategy is als - Russians in France, for example - were restarted. airstrikes, he said, “We are completely needed that also addresses poverty and committed to giving support. We will do TUNIS: Tunisian President Moncef is seen as a beacon of hope compared Continued on Page 13 improves education in the region. whatever is required.” But he appeared to Marzouki announced yesterday he will with other chaos-hit countries like Libya Continued on Page 13 stand for re-election in November, in a key and Egypt. But its transition to full democ- vote almost four years after a revolt that racy has been turbulent at times. In sparked the Arab Spring uprisings. The January, Marzouki and other leaders Deadly shipwreck fails to deter migrants polls, along with parliamentary elections signed a new constitution - seen as one of DAMIETTA, Egypt: A twist of fate stopped in October, are seen as the final step in the most modern in the Arab world - that Abu Fahd boarding a doomed migrant boat Tunisia’s transition after more than two took more than two years to draft. that sank off Malta with hundreds aboard, but decades under strongman Zine El Abidine Executive power is divided between the Syrian and his family are already plotting Ben Ali who was toppled in 2011. The Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, who has the another perilous voyage. Abu Fahd, his wife moderate Islamist party Ennahda won dominant role, and the president, who and five children were supposed to take a ves- Tunisia’s first post-Ben Ali election the retains important prerogatives, notably in sel from a beach on the outskirts of Egypt’s same year. Marzouki, a fierce opponent of defence and foreign affairs. Mediterranean city of Damietta but they Ben Ali and a secular ally of Ennahda, was Marzouki, a French-trained doctor and missed it and were arrested by the military. chosen as president in Dec 2011 in a vote veteran opposition rights activist, was Ben “We were crammed in a bus with more than in the National Constituent Assembly. Ali’s bete noire throughout his political 80 others. The smugglers had knives and pis- The 69-year-old kicked off his re-elec- career and was forced to live in exile in tols and they kept screaming at us,” he said. tion campaign with an attack on “dirty France for a decade. His critics say presi- “We got out on a beach from where a waiting money” in politics. “My candidacy is an dential ambitions motivated him to form boat flashed laser beams as a signal. We tried example of transparency,” he said. “We an alliance with Ennahda. Marzouki has to reach it but lagged behind as my wife was must not allow corruption in this first insisted that the coalition was the only limping and then suddenly the army pounced democratic experience,” he said after reg- way to ensure sustainable democracy. His on us.” istering for the Nov 23 vote. Critics often rise to power came almost a year after the The smugglers fled and the military handed accuse cronies of Ben Ali’s former auto- self-immolation of a Tunisian street ven- Abu Fahd, his family and dozens of others to cratic regime of seeking to derail the dor sparked a protest movement that the police.