BAGHDAD, Iraq — Masked gunmen have abducted 18 Turkish construction workers and engineers in east Baghdad, Iraqi and Turkish officials said Wednesday.
An Iraqi security official said several masked men entered the construction sites of a sports complex and kidnapped the Turkish nationals who were sleeping at the time. The workers were employed by Nurol Insaat, a Turkish construction company to build a sport compound in the Sadr district of the Iraqi capital.
Turkeys' Foreign Ministry confirmed the kidnapping in Baghdad and said it was in constant contact with Iraqi authorities to rescue the workers. According to Tanju Bilgic, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, those kidnapped included 14 workers, three engineers and an accountant.
The source said no violence was reported and the identity and the motives of the kidnappers remain unknown. One local media account said the gunmen were wearing military uniforms.
Turkey that for long was reluctant to fight Islamic State (ISIS) has recently began launching airstrikes against the extremist ISIS group in northern Iraq and Syria. The ISIS terror group last month called on its supporters in Turkey to revolt against the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On Tuesday, ISIS extremists reportedly opened fire on a Turkish military outpost in the border town of Kilis, killing one Turkish soldier.
