ANKARA, Aug 4 (AFP) - A group of Turkish lorry drivers is missing in Iraq, Turkey's international lorry drivers association said on Wednesday, the day that two other Turkish truck drivers were released by kidnappers in Iraq.
Around 10,000 Turkish drivers are currently in Iraq. "Around four or five of them haven't made contact recently," the head of the UND drivers' association, Cahit Soysal, told a news conference.
The UND represents 873 of Turkey's 900-odd international road transport companies.
On Monday it demanded the suspension of road deliveries to US forces in Iraq, in response to the execution there of a Turkish hostage.
Earlier on Wednesday Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying that two Turkish lorry drivers had been freed by kidnappers in Iraq suspected to be linked to Al-Qaeda.
Soysal welcomed the release of the two drivers but said the boycott of deliveries to US forces would remain in place "until the Iraqi authorities take the necessary measures to ensure safety in the transport sector".
The Arab-language Al-Jazeera television network aired a video tape on Wednesday in which the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, thought to be run by suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, said the two drivers had been freed after their employers "agreed to stop sending trucks to American forces in Iraq".