ANKARA, Aug 18 (AFP) - A Turkish truck driver kidnapped in Iraq at the weekend has been released and is on his way back to Turkey, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Wednesday.
"One of two drivers recently kidnapped in Iraq, Mustafa Koksal, has been rescued. With help from our embassy, he is returning back to Turkey," Gul told reporters here.
Koksal and fellow driver Durmus Kumdereli were abducted by unidentified assailants 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mosul on Saturday while returning to Turkey after delivering drinking water to a US base near Baghdad.
No demands were made in exchange for their release.
There was no immediate word on the fate of Kumdereli.
Several Turkish truckers have been abducted in Iraq and later released, while others have been killed in armed attacks on convoys.
Earlier this month, a videotape braodcast on Al-Jazeera satellite television showed Turkish worker Murat Yuce being shot in the head by his hostage-takers. He was the first Turkish national to be executed in Iraq.
Following his murder, a major Turkish truckers union called on its members to stop ferrying goods to US forces in Iraq until further notice.
Yuce`s empoyer, a catering company, meanwhile withdrew its remaining workers from Iraq in a bid to ensure the safety of a second employee, Aytullah Gezmen, who is also believed to have been kidnapped.