ANKARA, Aug 2 (AFP) - A Turkish national has been executed by his kidnappers in Iraq, officials said Monday, as a video posted on Islamic websites showed the hostage being shot three times in the head by masked men.
"We confirm that a Turkish national has been assassinated," a Turkish embassy official in Baghdad told AFP.
The victim`s employer, a catering company called Bilintur, confirmed that one of their staff members, Murat Yuce, had been killed.
A number of Turkish nationals have been kidnapped by Islamist extremists in Iraq but it is the first time one has been killed by his captors. Several others have been released after appeals by the Turkish government.
Another two Turks, both of them truck drivers, are still being held in Iraq by a group affiliated to suspected Al-Qaeda-linked operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi`s group which has threatened to execute them.
In the video posted on Islamic websites a hostage who identifies himself as Murat Yuce is seen blindfolded and being shot in the head by one of three hooded gunmen as they shout Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).
The masked man fired two more bullets into the victim`s head after he fell to the ground, his face down in a pool of blood.
The video earlier showed Yuce reading a statement in Turkish urging Turkish firms to pull out of Iraq.
A statement read out by one of the gunmen said the Turkish "apostate" would be executed because of Ankara`s failure to heed calls to stop "aiding the (US) occupier" in Iraq.
The three gunmen stood in front of banner which appeared to carry the name of Zarqawi`s Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group.