Two released Turkish workers on their way home from Iraq

Two of the 18 kidnapped Turkish workers in Iraq are on their way back to Turkey on Thursday, a Turkish official said.

Turkey’s Baghdad Ambassador Faruk Kaymakci said that Necdet Yilmaz and Ercan Ozpilavci are coming from Basra.

Turkish embassy officials in Baghdad told Anadolu Agency that the two men were in good health.

Eighteen Turkish workers were abducted earlier this month in a Baghdad suburb by an armed Shia group.

The released workers said they were brought to a Turkish company’s building site by an unidentified group that dressed them in military uniforms, Ahmed al-Seliti, spokesman of Basra province’s council, told Anadolu Agency.

All those abducted are employees of Nurol Holding, a Turkish construction firm that is currently carrying out development projects in the Iraqi capital.

Last week, a video appeared online purportedly showing the 18 abductees kneeling before five masked men brandishing guns.

In the video, the abductees – who include three engineers and an accountant – give their names and the names of their hometowns in Turkey.