ISIS militants release 32 Turkish truck drivers seized in Mosul

ANKARA: Thirty-two truck drivers abducted by Islamist militants in Iraq three weeks ago were handed over to Turkish of ficials on Thursday and Ankara is working to secure the release of other Turks held there, foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

There was no news on the 49 remaining Turks, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, who were seized in Mosul by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) militants on June 11, a day after the truck drivers were taken captive.

“The 32 drivers kidnapped in Mosul have been received by our consulate and they are currently en route to Arbil,” Davutoglu told a news conference in the Turkish capital. He said a Turkish Airlines plane had taken off from Istanbul for the Iraqi Kurdistan capital Arbil and would bring the drivers to Ankara on Thursday evening.

“We will continue to work extensively on the release of our citizens who were left behind,” he said, adding that the drivers were in good health.

Turkey has close trade and political relations with the Kurdish-controlled area located to the east of Mosul and which has not been targeted by ISIS.

The truck drivers, who were abducted by ISIS militants while they were delivering diesel, were initially held at a power plant in the Gyarah region of Mosul.

Meanwhile, there were reports that hundreds of Bangladeshi construction workers have been beaten and humiliated by soldiers in Iraq after becoming dragged into their host country’s sectarian conflict, two of their colleagues said in Dhaka on Thursday. Some had their beards shaved off by the mainly Shia Muslim troops after being accused of sympathising with Sunni insurgents.