The kidnapping of 18 Turkish workers in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad is neither the work of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) or the PKK, Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu has said. "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 ISIS or the PKK," he said in Parliament on Thursday. The employer of the abducted workers told media that Iraqi officials found out that the vehicles of the kidnappers were seen at a location 35 kilometers away from the Iraqi capital. About the condition of the 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 the construction site of a Turkish company, Nurol Holding, in Sadr, a Baghdad suburb. Sinirlioğlu said that efforts were ongoing to save the kidnapped Turkish people and they were also in contact with Baghdad authorities.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Ibadi announced that Iraqi authorities will treat the kidnappers of 18 Turkish workers as terrorists. Nurol, one of the largest construction companies in Turkey, was awarded a stadium construction contract in Sadr City in 2012. The company also has a liaison office in Baghdad. Officials said the kidnappers stormed the construction site at dawn on Wednesday while the workers were sleeping in caravans and took them away in several SUVs. The style and scale of Wednesday's kidnappings share similarities with the sectarian violence Baghdad suffered in 2006 and 2007 when Sunni and Shiite militants kidnapped followers of the other sect. In most cases, a day or two later the captives' bodies were found with bullet wounds to the head and visible signs of torture present.
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