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Seven Turks held hostage in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-11 08:53 Iraqi insurgents are holding seven Turks hostage
and demanding Turkish companies leave Iraq, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official
said Thursday.
Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired a videotape showing what it said were
four of the seven Turkish hostages. Masked men, armed with automatic rifles,
stood behind the hostages.
"It appears seven people have been taken hostage. We don't have any concrete
information on their identities," the Turkish official told Reuters.
"They may have been bringing goods and providing logistical support for
American companies in Iraq," he said, adding it was unclear when and where the
men had been abducted.
The Turkish ambassador in Baghdad and Turkish intelligence services were
working for the men's release, the official said.
Arabiya said the insurgents belonged to a group calling itself the Jihad
(Holy War) Squadrons. They were demanding Turks protest the U.S.-led occupation
of Iraq.
A statement read by a group member condemned Turkish firms for supporting the
U.S.-led occupation, Arabiya said.
Dozens of foreign workers have been taken hostage by armed Iraqi groups
battling the U.S.-led presence in Iraq. Some hostages have been released but
others have been killed.
The Turkish official said two Turks working for a Turkish contracting firm
who were abducted this week had been released.
An Iraqi group is still holding Turkish truck driver Bulent Yanik and an
Egyptian hostage and has threatened to kill them if their countries do not
condemn the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
"We don't know anything about recent developments (with Yanik). He's still
being held, but we don't know where," the official said.
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