Turkey Says It Is Only Helping Iraq As Turkish Hostages Reported Killed

ANKARA, Sept 2 (AFP) - Turkey said on Thursday that the activities of its nationals in neighboring Iraq were only aimed at helping the war-torn country as Iraqi rebels announced that they had executed three more Turkish hostages.
"All of Turkey's activities in Iraq... are to the benefit of the Iraqi people and have mostly humanitarian objectives," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Turkey has always felt close to the Iraqi people... Those who stubbornly turn a blind eye to this fact do not serve the interests of Iraq," it said.
The statement was issued at the end of an emergency meeting convened by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul following a report on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television that three Turkish hostages had been executed in Iraq.
The killings bring to four the number of Turkish nationals killed at the hands of hostage-takers in the country.
"I cannot give you a 100-percent confirmation at the moment but the report seems credible. There are signs that the executions are true," a senior 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.
In a video released on the Internet last month, Turkish worker Murat Yuce was shown being shot in the head by his captors.
Several Turkish truckers, meanwhile, have been killed in violence on the roads of the country.
Others have been kidnapped and then released, mostly after their employers agreed to pull out from the country.
Turkey is not part of the US-led international troop contingent in Iraq.
Many Turkish companies, however, have been awarded infrastructure projects in the country, while scores of others are ferrying supplies to the US army.
Turkish business people have been keen to trade with Iraq, one of Turkey's main 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.
The foreign ministry said it had decided to form a "task group" to watch for the safety of Turkish nationals working in Iraq and to review security measures.