ANKARA, Sept 1 (AFP) - A Turkish lorry driver who had been held hostage in Iraq since August 7 was freed on Wednesday, Turkish television news channel NTV reported.
NTV showed driver Tahsin Top looking well and receiving a Koran from his captors, in the company of two masked men without weapons.
The Turkish foreign ministry, contacted by AFP, could not immediately confirm Top had been released.
Top had been abducted on the road between Tikrit and Mosul, in northern Iraq, by a group identifying itself as the Abdel Kader Al-Gilani Brigade, which is part of the so-called Islamic Secret Army.
The kidnappers demanded that the company which employs Top, Atahan Lojistik, withdraw from Iraq.
Atahan Lojistik announced immediately after he was shown in a video, visibly nervous and surrounded by masked men, that it would halt all activities in the country.
In the video, which was picked up by Turkish television stations, the driver spoke in Turkish and showed various documents to prove his identity.
"They are killing... Please, driver colleagues, don`t come to Iraq. If not you`ll end up in the same situation as me," he said. "We can make a living anywhere else."
He added: "The United States are our enemy. Iraq is our brother."
Most Turks taken hostage in Iraq so far have been lorry drivers. All have been freed except Murat Yuce, who has been killed.
A video released in July showed Yuce being shot in the head by one of his captors, believed to be linked to the Al-Qaeda network, even though his employer, Turkish catering company Bilintur, had said it would pull out of Iraq.