18 Turkish workers kidnapped in Baghdad
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Baghdad: Eighteen Turkish workers were kidnapped from a sports stadium they were constructing in northeast Baghdad on Wednesday morning, the head of their firm, Nurol Holding, told Reuters.
‘People dressed in military uniforms broke down the door at 3 am (0000 GMT) and abducted all these people,’ Nurol chief executive Ugur Dogan said. A spokesman for the Iraqi interior ministry had earlier said 16 people were taken.
Sixteen Turkish workers were kidnapped by masked men in Baghdad, Iraq's interior ministry said on Wednesday.
The workers were taken in the northeastern district of Habibiya early on Wednesday, ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan told Reuters.
Last year 46 Turkish citizens were seized by Islamic State militants in Mosul, but were released unharmed after more than three months in captivity.
The officials say kidnappers stormed the construction site at dawn Wednesday, where the workers were sleeping in caravans, and took the 16 away in several SUVs. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, reported Associated Press.
Neither the identity nor the motives of the kidnappers were immediately known.
Turkey recently began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group in northern Iraq and allowing US warplanes to use bases in southeastern Turkey to strike against the extremist group.