Truck drivers freed in Iraq

Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday the truck drivers were making their way to the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq, and would then be flown to Ankara in the evening.

There was not any news on the remaining 49 Turks, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, who were seized by militants from the extremist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). They were abducted in the northern city of Mosul on June 11, three days after the drivers were taken.

"The 32 drivers kidnapped in Mosul have been received by our consulate and they are currently in route to Irbil," said Davutoglu. He added the drivers were well but that one of them might need to undergo special medical treatment.

Davutoglu said efforts were still underway to recover the remaining Turks still in captivity.

"The critical process continues," he said. "Our prayers and our efforts will go on for the rest of them and God willing, we will share such good news about them too as soon as possible."

Call for independence vote

Also on Thursday, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massud Barzani, told the local parliament it should make "preparations to begin to organize a referendum on the right of self-determination."

"It will strengthen our position and will be a powerful weapon in our hands," Barzani said.

The 5 million Kurds in Iraq have operated in relative autonomy since the 1990s, but have increasingly seen independence as a realistic and favorable option as Baghdad struggles to provide budget payments.

The region has grown by up to 40 percent in recent weeks as ISIS militants seized vast swathes of western and northern Iraq.

The oil-rich province of Kirkuk and a large area of northern Iraq have fallen under Kurdish control, against the wishes of Baghdad.

Barzani did not provide a timetable on a potential independence referendum, but reportedly asked parliament to set a date.

Saudi troops move into Iraq

The Dubai-based television channel al-Arabiya reported on Thursday that Saudi troops had moved into a Saudi border region after Iraqi forces loyal to the government abandoned their positions, leaving frontiers of Saudi Arabia and Syria exposed.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was reported to have ordered troops to take all necessary measures to protect the kingdom from Sunni Islamist militants.

Al-Arabiya, a Saudi-owned broadcaster, said it had obtained a video that apparently showed some 2,500 Iraqi troops in a desert region of Iraq, after they were ordered to withdraw from the border. An officer featured in the footage was reported as saying the soldiers had been ordered to quit their positions.

dr/ipj (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)