ANKARA, Sept 2 (AFP) - A television report that three Turkish hostages had been executed in Iraq "seems credible," a Turkish diplomat said Thursday.
"I cannot give you a 100-percent confirmation at the moment but the report seems credible. There are signs that the executions are true," the diplomat told AFP.
He said the hostages appeared to have been killed by the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, thought to be run by suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi
The diplomat declined to identify the victims, but said they had not been known to be in captivity so far.
Police and medical officers in Iraq told AFP that three Turkish drivers were found shot dead on the roadside outside the rebel den of Samarra north of Baghdad, apparently the hostages.
"We are looking into the issue and trying to find out whether the bodies belong to the slain hostages," the Turkish diplomat said.
The killings bring to four the number of Turkish nationals killed at the hands of hostage-takers in Iraq.
In a video released on the Internet last month, worker Murat Yuce was shown being shot in the head by his captors.
Several truckers, meanwhile, have been killed in violence on the roads of the country.
Several other Turks have been kidnapped and then released, mostly after their employers agreed to pull out from the country.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called Thursday an emergency meeting between relevant units of his ministry to assess the worsening security conditions in Iraq as well as the abduction of two French journalists and the hostage crisis in Russia, officials said.
Turkish business people have been keen to trade with Iraq, one of Turkey's principal trade partners before the 1991 Gulf War, but the recent wave of violence has scared off many and has prompted Ankara to seek enhanced security measures for its nationals.