ANKARA (AA) - Ankara has been considering several security measures for safe trip of security guards, diplomats and all other Turkish citizens to their destination in Iraq.
Speaking at the weekly press briefing, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Namik Tan said on Wednesday, ''We have launched all necessary initiatives to capture and try of those who are responsible for the killing of five Turkish security guards in Mosul last week. We informed authorities of the relevant countries on testimonies of Turkish security guards who survived the attack. However, efforts to identify the assailants have not yielded any results yet. Therefore, it will be appropriate to refrain from speculative predictions and assessments,'' he told reporters.
Upon another question, Tan said that it was planned to hold a security meeting in January of 2005 with the participation of Turkey, the United States and Iraq.
Five Turkish security guards were killed in an ambush as they were travelling by car through Iraq to Baghdad on December 17th. Witnesses said that attackers machine gunned the guards and decapitated one of them after telling them to get out of the cars. Eight guards had crossed Turkey's border with Iraq at Habur in four cars, and were on their way to the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, when they were attacked around Iraqi city of Mosul.
(UK-ULG)
2004-12-22