- ANKARA (AFP) -- A Turkish
national taken hostage in Iraq was shown on a video posted on Islamic websites
being blindfolded and shot three times in the head by his hooded kidnappers.
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- News of the execution by a group linked to suspected
Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi prompted a major Turkish truckers'
organization to announce it would stop ferrying goods to US forces in Iraq.
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- "We confirm that a Turkish national has been assassinated,"
a Turkish embassy official in Baghdad told AFP Monday.
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- A Turkish foreign ministry official identified the victim
as Murat Yuce and said he had been kidnapped by the Tawhid wa al-Jihad
(Unification and Holy War) group affiliated to the Jordanian-born Zarqawi.
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- She said Yuce was a cleaner working for the Bilintur
catering company which subcontracted for a major holding company known
as Tepe transporting goods to US soldiers in the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul.
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- "The group made no demands concerning him,"
she added.
-
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- Another two Turks -- Abdurrahman Demir and Sait Unurlu,
both of them truck drivers -- are still being held in Iraq by militants
linked to Zarqawi who have threatened to execute them.
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- Their employers have said they may halt operations in
Iraq in a bid to spare their lives.
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- A third driver, Tevfik Alkan, is also missing amid reports
that he recently came under attack on a road betwen Baghdad and Tikrit.
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- A number of Turkish nationals have been kidnapped by
Islamist extremists in Iraq but it is the first time one has been killed
by his captors.
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- Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his
head, has been accused by Washington of masterminding some of the deadliest
bombings in Iraq. His group has also claimed to have kidnapped and killed
other foreign hostages.
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- In the video posted on Islamic websites a hostage who
identifies himself as Yuce is seen blindfolded and being shot in the head
by one of three hooded gunmen as they shout Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).
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- The masked man fired two more bullets into the victim's
head after he fell to the ground, his face down in a pool of blood.
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- The video earlier showed Yuce reading a statement in
Turkish urging Turkish firms to pull out of Iraq.
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- A statement read by one of the gunmen said the Turkish
"apostate" would be executed because of Ankara's failure to heed
calls to stop "aiding the (US) occupier" in Iraq.
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- The three gunmen were standing in front of a banner which
appeared to carry the name of Zarqawi's group.
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- Istanbul-based International Transporters' Association
(UND), which counts most of Turkey's 900 land transport companies among
its members, said it had decided to stop transporting cargo to the US troops
in Iraq from Monday.
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- Its executive comittee chairman Cahit Soysal told AFP
that the decision would affect about five percent of all trade between
Turkey and its southern neighbour.
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- Hundreds of trucks pass daily between Iraq and Turkey,
ferrying oil and goods, some of it destined for US forces in Iraq.
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- Dozens of foreigners working in Iraq have been abducted
and taken hostage by Islamic militants waging an insurgency that began
during the US-led occupation. Some have been set free, some remain missing
and others have been killed.
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- A Turkish driver who died in Iraq after being attacked
was buried in his home village in eastern Turkey on Monday while the body
of another Turkish driver who had gone missing was found in a morgue in
Baghdad and brought home.
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- Three other Turkish truckers were killed by unknown gunmen
last month.
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- In early July, Iraqi insurgents with suspected links
to Al-Qaeda released five Turkish workers whom they held hostage for several
weeks.
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of Agence France Presse.
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