Second Turkish Firm Pulls Out Of Iraq To Save Abducted Worker

ANKARA, Aug 19 (AFP) - A second Turkish firm announced Thursday that it was withdrawing from Iraq to save the life of a Turkish worker who was facing execution at the hands of his kidnappers.
Tepe construction company said in a brief statement, carried by the Anatolia news agency, that it had decided pull out all its workers from the war-torn country in order to secure the release of Aytullah Gezmen.
Company officials were not immediately available for comment.
Gezmen -- a translator working for the Bilintur catering company, which is part of Tepe holdings -- went missing in Iraq last month along with another worker, Murat Yuce, who was later executed by masked kidnappers.
In a video tape aired on a Turkish news channel earlier Thursday, Gezmen said his captors had threatened to kill him if Bilintur and Tepe did not quit Iraq within 72 hours.
Bilintur announced Tuesday that it had withdrawn all its workers from Iraq not to risk Gezmen's life.