Baghdad: Turkey on Wednesday confirmed that 18 Turkish construction workers have been kidnapped by unknown individuals in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
"Eighteen Turkish citizens working for a construction company in Baghdad have been kidnapped," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters. "We are in close contact with the Iraqi (interior) ministry and hope the incident will end positively."
Officials say the workers are employed by a Turkish construction company contracted to build a sports complex in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City.
The kidnappers reportedly stormed the construction site at dawn on Wednesday, where the workers were sleeping in caravans, and took the 16 away in several SUVs.
A police colonel said those kidnapped included three engineers as well as employees of the administrative department and labourers.
The motives of the kidnappers were not immediately known but kidnappings for ransom are a persistent problem in Baghdad.
Turkey recently began launching air strikes against the extremist Islamic State group in northern Iraq and allowing US warplanes to use bases in southeastern Turkey to strike against the extremist group.
