by Sibel Utku Bila
ANKARA, Aug 1 (AFP) - Two Turkish transport companies said Sunday they may suspend their operations in Iraq to save two drivers who risk execution at the hands of hostage-takers, as weeping relatives pleaded for their release.
The group of Al-Qaeda-linked operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi said late Saturday it had kidnapped two Turkish drivers and threatened to behead them in 48 hours if the company they were working for did not pull out of Iraq, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television reported.
"What is important for us at the moment is that both of our drivers return home safely... We can agree not to transport (goods) to Iraq until the authority vacuum there is filled," a spokesman, Omer Ozturk, told journalists in the southern city of Mersin, Anatolia news agency reported.
The statement was made on behalf of the Mersin-based Kahramanli transport company, to which the hostage-takers had addressed their demands, and its partner, the Oztur company.
"Forty-eight hours have been given for the abducted drivers. Little time is left for the expiry of this period. We expect an urgent solution to be found," Ozturk said.
He explained that the Kahramanli and Oztur companies were operating jointly in neighboring Iraq. They were transporting beds, lockers and bunk beds for the US army.
As Turkish officials kept silent on the incident, relatives of one of the hostages wept in despair and called on authorities to secure the release of the two men.
Three hooded gunmen were seen in the Al-Jazeera video standing behind the pair with a banner carrying the group's name, Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War group), in the background.
In the video, the group named the two men as Abdul Rahman Demir and Said Anwar.
In a close-up of their documents on Turkish television, their names were seen as Abdurrahman Demir and Sait Unurlu.
Unurlu's ID card also read that he was born in 1967 in the town of Birecik in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa.
Footage on CNN-Turk showed weeping women and children in Unurlu's house in Birecik.
"We saw the footage and it was him. His mother, who had a heart operation recently, and his wife are devastated," Unurlu's niece, Gulsen Altinova, told AFP by telephone.
"This group is not like any other. We are afraid that they will do what they threaten to do if the company does not comply with their demands," she said.
Unurlu, father of six children, last telephoned his wife from the northern Iraqi town of Zakhu five days ago. He was en route to Baghdad, Altinova said.
"We suspect he is currently in Baghdad," she said.
The driver's cousin, Nurettin Unurlu, called for help from the authorities.
"We are afraid. We are expecting the authorities to help but finally it will be up to the company to decide," he said.
There were no immediate details about the second driver.
The report of the abductions came just hours after news broke of the release of a Turkish driver who was kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen on July 17 near the northern city of Mosul.
Dozens of foreigners working in Iraq have been abducted and taken hostage. Some have been set free, some remain missing and others have been killed.
The body of a Turkish driver who had gone missing in Iraq was found in a morgue in Baghdad and brought home earlier this week.
Three other Turkish truckers were killed by unknown gunmen in the country last month.
In early July, Iraqi insurgents with suspected links to Al-Qaeda released five Turkish workers whom they held hostage for several weeks.