KUWAIT CITY, Sept 5 (AFP) - A leading Kuwaiti transport company, which has multi-million-dollar contracts with US forces, said Sunday a small number of its Turkish drivers have refused to go to Iraq for fear of being taken hostage.
"There has been no mass action," said James Reheiser, spokesman for Public Warehousing Company (PWC Logistics). "Only a small number of drivers wanted to leave" the company, he told AFP.
Reheiser was responding to local press reports that more than 400 of the 1,500 Turkish truckers employed by several Kuwaiti companies staged a strike Saturday demanding that their contracts be terminated.
"No one is forced to drive into Iraq... It's not compulsory. But if they were hired to go to Iraq and they don't want to, they can seek employment somewhere else," Reheiser said.
The so-called "Islamic Resistance Movement - Noman Brigades" group in Iraq claimed Saturday to have taken a Turk hostage and threatened to behead him unless his firm and other Turkish companies cooperating with US troops pull out within two days.
Medhat Chiwi works as a driver for the Turkish Inaya company, which has a contract with a Kuwaiti firm that told AFP Sunday it has ceased its operations in Iraq, appealing for the captive's release.
Four Turkish nationals have been executed at the hands of hostage-takers in the war-torn country.
Several other Turks have been kidnapped and then released, mostly after their employers agreed to pull out.
Dozens of other foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq by insurgents seeking to force their governments or employers to leave the country.
PWC Logistics provides comprehensive supply chain solutions to companies throughout the Middle East and transports various products to US forces in Iraq.