US troops free kidnapped Turk from Samarra

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US soldiers freed a Turk held in the insurgent stronghold of Samarra, a US military spokesman told AFP.
US troops "were able to rescue a Turkish worker named Yahlin Kaya who had been kidnapped. He has been evacuated to a coalition base," said Master Sergeant Robert Powell from Tikrit, the headquarters for the 1st Infantry Division.
Kaya was rescued during a major US offensive to reclaim the rebel enclave ahead of parliamentary elections four months away.
Dozens of truck drivers, many of them Turks, have been kidnapped and killed on the treacherous road north of Baghdad, which bypasses Samarra.