Asia

Home page

Asia

Another 15 Turkish citizens kidnapped in Iraq

18 June 2014 04:21 (UTC +04:00)

ISIL militants blocked the road of a convoy of 100 workers and engineers, fleeing Tikrit that is under ISIL control to Suleimaniya city, which is under Kurdish control, according to accounts of an Iraqi worker who was with the group but let free because he was an Iraqi national. The worker said the kidnapped people were citizens of Turkey, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Nepal and working in the construction of a private hospital. He noted that they were initially a group of more than 100 people, but the ISIL militants kept only 60 foreign workers, including 15 Turkish workers and engineers.

ISIL militants seized 49 Turks, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and their dependants last Wednesday, prompting criticism of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government for failing to foresee the danger and evacuate the consulate sooner. ISIL militants also earlier took 31 Turkish truck drivers hostage in Mosul.

Speaking at a rally in the Northern Black Sea province of Trabzon, ErdoÄŸan said about 100 Turkish citizens are in the hands of "ISIL elements." The discrepancy between numbers was not immediately clear. According to Foreign Ministry figures, with the latest abduction, there are at least 95 Turkish citizens held captive by ISIL militants.