Turkey condemns Daesh mass killing of Turkmens in Iraq

By Ercan Canbolat

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey on Wednesday condemned the killing of at least 200 Turkmens in Iraq’s Tal Afar district, west of Mosul.

Media reports saying that the terrorist group Daesh has massacred many of our Turkmen kin who were fleeing villages around the city of Tal Afar have “overwhelmed” us, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu in a statement.

According to reports, Daesh has reportedly executed 200 Turkmens in Tal Afar after holding them for around two months.

Daesh captured the predominantly Turkmen city of Tal Afar in mid-2014, forcing thousands of local residents to flee their homes.

The Iraqi military remains engaged in a wide-ranging campaign -- launched last October in coordination with a U.S.-led air coalition -- to recapture the entire city of Mosul, Daesh’s last remaining stronghold in northern Iraq.