ANKARA, Aug 5 (AFP) - A Turkish truck driver has been killed in an attack in the north of Iraq while two others were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.
The news of Osman Alisan's death was conveyed to his family by the Ulasli oil company for which he had started working six months ago, his wife Elife Alisan told Anatolia.
"His boss said my husband's body was in a morgue in Mosul," she said.
An official from the Turkish embassy in Baghdad said they had received information that Alisan was shot some 70 kilometres from the Turkish border, but could not confirm his death.
Alisan's death brings to at least seven the number of Turkish drivers who have been killed in attacks in Iraq.
In a separate incident, a Turkish driver and another unidentified colleague were abducted by unidentified gunmen while on their way back to Turkey after dropping off goods near Baghdad, their employer, Emin Deger of the Deger transport company, told Anatolia.
Neither embassy officials in Baghdad nor the Turkish foreign ministry in Ankara could confirm the report.
According to a major Turkish truckers' association, at least four drivers are missing in Iraq.
Turkish officials refuse to say how many Turks are missing or being held hostage in the war-torn country.
On Wednesday, two Turkish truck drivers were set free by the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, thought to be run by suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, after their employers agreed to halt delieveries to US forces in Iraq.