Turkish Workers 'Not Kidnapped By Daesh, PKK' İn Iraq

The kidnapping of 18 Turkish workers in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad is neither the work of Daesh nor Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said Thursday.



"What we know is that it is not [the work of] one of the terrorist organizations that we are all familiar with; it is not Daesh or PKK," Sinirlioglu told the media at the Turkish parliament.



About the condition of kidnapped workers, the foreign minister said: "We think they are in good medical condition."



Men in military uniform abducted the group, including 14 workers, three engineers and an accountant early Wednesday after raiding a construction site of a Turkish company, Nurol Holding, in Sadr city, a Baghdad suburb.



Sinirlioglu said that efforts were on going to save the kidnapped Turkish people and they were also in contact with Baghdad authorities.



"We expect the issue to be resolved at the earliest, which Iraqi authorities also promised us to do as well," he added.



He also said that there was no further development or information about the Turkish soldier who went missing in southern border province of Kilis Wednesday afternoon following a clash with a group of suspected smugglers trying to cross from Syria into Turkey; the incident had also left a Turkish soldier dead.



Earlier on Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered Iraqi security forces to find the kidnapped Turkish workers.



He described the incident as part of a "campaign against reform in Iraq", which he said was carried out by "terrorists".



On June 11 last year, 49 Turkish hostages, including diplomats, consular officials and their families, were kidnapped from the Mosul consulate, a day after Daesh took control of Iraq's second-largest city. The victims were later freed.



Iraq has suffered a devastating security vacuum since Daesh militants overran Mosul before capturing additional territory in both Iraq and neighboring Syria. - Ankara