REPORT: Militants free 32 Turkish truck drivers seized in Iraq

Thirty-two truck drivers abducted by Islamist militants in Iraq three weeks ago arrived home in Turkey on Thursday, and Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said efforts to secure the release of 49 more abductees were continuing.     

There were emotional scenes as the drivers were reunited with their families, with children and relatives running to embrace their loved ones at the airport in southeastern Sanliurfa border province.       

The drivers, who were held captive for 23 days, appeared in good health and said they had not been mistreated by the militants.       

"They first read verses from the Quran and told us that we are free this morning and that we can call our families," one truck driver who was released said as he held his son in his arms. "We ate bread, cucumbers and slept in our trucks."           

Drivers declined to answer questions on the 49 Turks still held in Iraq, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, who were seized in the northern city of Mosul by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants on June 11.       

Two truck drivers told CNN Turk television that Turkish officials had advised them not to speak on the issue.           

"We will continue to work extensively on the release of our citizens who were left behind," Davutoglu said in a press conference.       

Turkey has close trade and political relations with the Kurdish-controlled area located to the east of Mosul and which has not been targeted by ISIL.           

The truck drivers, who were abducted by ISIL militants while delivering diesel, were initially held at a power plant in the Gyarah region of Mosul.           

The seizure of so many Turks in Iraq has prompted criticism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government for failing to foresee the danger and to evacuate the Mosul consulate sooner.        

But Erdogan, who declared his candidacy for the August presidential election on Tuesday, has accused his opponents of trying to make political capital out of a highly sensitive security situation. 
        
Saudi Arabia:  

Also on Thursday, Saudi Arabia deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers abandoned the area, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said, but Baghdad denied this and said the frontier remained under its full control.         

The world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with Iraq, where Islamic State insurgents and other Sunni Muslim militant groups seized towns and cities in a lightning advance last month.      

King Abdullah has ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential "terrorist threats", state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.           

The U.S.-allied kingdom overcame its own al Qaeda insurgency almost a decade ago and is wary of any encroaching new threat from radical Sunni Islamists.      

The Dubai-based al-Arabiya said on its website that Saudi troops fanned into the border region after Iraqi government forces withdrew from positions, leaving the Saudi and Syrian frontiers unprotected.        

The Iraqi prime minister's military spokesman denied the forces had withdrawn. "This is false news aimed at affecting the morale of our people and the morale of our heroic fighters," Lieutenant General Qassim Atta told reporters in Baghdad.       

He said the frontier, which runs through largely empty desert, was "fully in the grip" of Iraqi border troops.          

The satellite channel said it had obtained a video showing some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert region east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after pulling back from the border.          

An officer in the video aired by al-Arabiya said that the soldiers had been ordered to quit their posts without justification. The authenticity of the recording could not immediately be verified.