ANKARA, Aug 4 (AFP) - Turkey said Wednesday that two Turkish truck drivers were released in Iraq after being held hostage for days by suspected Al-Qaeda linked militants who threatened to execute them.
"The two Turkish hostages in Iraq have been released...This good news has made us happy," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying in the central Turkish city of Kirsehir.
The Al-Jazeera satellite television network earlier aired a video tape in which the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group of suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi said the two truckers were freed after their employers "agreed to stop sending trucks to American forces in Iraq".
The announcement was read by a masked man flanked by two armed guards standing behind the two abducted truckers, Abdurrahman Demir and Sait Unurlu.
Turkish officials said the two men had not yet been handed over or contacted the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, but the owner of one of the companies the pair worked for expressed hope that they would do so later in the day.
"I spoke to executives from Al-Jazeera and they told me that the drivers would be left at a spot in Baghdad at about 4 or 5 p.m. local time," Omer Oztuk, the head of the Oztur transport company, told AFP from his headquarters in the southern city of Mersin.
"They (the drivers) have not yet called us... But we are relieved and I do not think that any problem can emerge from now on," he said.
News of the two men`s release was welcomed by family members who were seen on the CNN-Turk television channel shouting in joy, embracing each other and dancing after days of anxious waiting.
"I was not able to speak to my husband yet. We heard the news from television and we are so happy. I cannot tell you how happy the kids are. God bless all who helped in their release," Yurda Unurlu, the wife of one of the truckers, told AFP from the southeastern town of Birecik.
"When he comes back, I will not let him go back to Iraq," she added.
Demir and Unurlu`s abduction was announced late on Saturday on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, which broadcast a tape by the kidnappers threatening to behead the hostages unless their company pulled out of Iraq within 48 hours.
The truckers` companies -- Kahramanli and Oztur which are operating jointly in Iraq transporting lockers and beds for the US army -- announced the following day that they would suspend their operations in Iraq in order to guarantee the safety of their employees.
Ozturk said Wednesday that they stood firm behind their decision to halt deliveries.
"For us, human life is more important than business," he said.
The truckers` release came two days after the airingmination of an Internet video showing the execution of Turkish national Murat Yuce who was kidnapped by militants linked to al-Zarqawi.
Following the release of the video, the International Transporters` Association, which groups most of Turkey`s 900 land transport companies, urged its members to immediately stop transporting cargo to US troops in Iraq.
Yuce`s employer -- Turkish catering company Bilintur -- announced Tuesday that it was withdrawing its remaining workers from the country in order not to risk the life of a second worker who is also believed to have been kidnapped along with the slain man.
Apart from the second Bilintur worker, another truck driver, Tevfik Alkan, is also missing amid fears that he has been abducted after coming under attack on a road linking Baghdad and Tikrit last month.
A total of 13 Turks have been held as hostages in Iraq and then released, while at least six Turkish national have been killed in in attacks on convoys in Iraq.