AlQa'dah 25, 1435, Sep 20, 2014, SPA -- Turkish authorities say they have freed 49 hostages from one of the world's most ruthless militant groups without firing a shot, paying a ransom or offering a quid pro quo, according to AP. But as the well-dressed men and women captured by ISIS group more than three months ago clasped their families Saturday on the tarmac of the Turkish capital's airport, experts had serious doubts about the government's story. The official explanation "sounds a bit too good to be true," said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who chairs the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies. "There are some very legitimate and unanswered questions about how this happened." The hostages whose number included two small children were seized from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul after the group overran the Iraqi city on June 11. Turkish leaders gave only the broadest outlines of their rescue Saturday. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the release was the work of the country's intelligence agency rather than a special forces operation. "After intense efforts that lasted days and weeks, in the early hours our citizens were handed over to us and we brought them back," Davutoglu said. Davutoglu was the star of the homecoming ceremony Saturday, flying the hostages back to Ankara on his plane and delivering an impassioned address to the crowd. Families rushed the aircraft to greet their returning loved ones. The ex-hostages emerged wearing clean dresses and suits and showed little sign of having been held captive by fanatical militants for more than three months. The hostages' joyous reunion at the airport came as an enormous relief after the recent beheadings of other hostages two U.S. journalists and a British aid worker by the group. -- SPA 20:49 LOCAL TIME 17:49 GMT تغريد
