Turkish Truck Driver Taken Hostage In Iraq

SAMARRA, Iraq, Aug 7 (AFP) - A Turkish truck driver was Friday being held hostage by Islamic militants who have demanded that his company quit Iraq, his kidnappers told journalists in the flashpoint city of Samarra.
Snatched on the road from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the abductors said Tahsin Top had been driving back from Baghdad were he had delivered supplies to the US army.
He was being held by a group calling itself the Abdel Kader al-Gilani Brigade, an offshoot of the Islamic Secret Army, they said.
One of the kidnappers told reporters the group wanted no ransom, only for the company to quit Iraq. The firm should write a letter to satellite television channels announcing its full withdrawal, he added.
Earlier, Turkish station NTV broadcast footage of a nervous man, identified as Top who was employed by Turkish firm Atahan and had entered Iraq on July 24, the channel said.
He would be executed in 48 hours unless his firm bowed to the kidnappers' demands, it added.
In the video, the nervous captive addresses his compatriots in Turkish while showing various documents to the camera to prove his identity.
"They are killing... Please, comrade drivers, do not come here," he says.
Several Turkish truck drivers, mainly transporting supplies to the US army, have been abducted by militants in Iraq. On Monday, Turkey's Murat Yuce was shown in a video being shot in the head by his kidnappers.
It was not immediately clear if Top had already been reported as missing in Iraq or was a new kidnap victim.
Turkey has said it was trying to save the lives of three Turks believed to be held hostage in Iraq and to locate two others who have been missing.
Following the execution of Yuce -- the first Turkish hostage killed in Iraq -- the main Turkish road haulage association urged its drivers to stop transporting supplies for US forces.
But several Turkish trucks were still crossing the border, the Anatolia agency reported on Saturday.
The Islamic Secret Army executed two Pakistani hostages last month.