Sixteen kidnaped Turkish workers released in Iraq

Sixteen Turkish workers who were being held captive by Shiite militias in Iraq have been released, Turkish Ambassador to Baghdad Faruk Kaymakç? has said. 

"We took the workers 55-60 kilometers south of Baghdad on Karbala road in the morning and we are on the way back to the embassy right now," Ambassador Kaymakç? told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 30. 

He said they received a phone call from the workers following their release. "We told them to wait on the road. Their state of health is good. They said they were not treated badly," Kaymakç? added.

The group has given each worker a Quran, $200 in envelopes and clean clothes, the ambassador also said. 

The Iraqi authorities wanted to take statements of Turkish citizens in a police station, but embassy officials convinced them to take the statements at the embassy compound, Kaymakç? stated, welcoming the efforts of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his establishment of a special commission for the case that worked closely with the Turkish authorities. 

Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesperson Numan Kurtulmu? claimed that the Turkish authorities had information about the whereabouts and circumstances of the workers from the first day of their kidnapping.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu announced the release via his Twitter account. "Turkey's Iraqi ambassador has just received our 16 workers that were captured in Baghdad. I have talked to some of our workers on the phone," he stated.

The state aircraft "Ana," carrying  Deputy Prime Minister Tu?rul Türke?, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekçi and Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoü?lu, was sent to take the workers from Iraq and was expected to arrive in Turkey late on Sept. 30 after the Hürriyet Daily...