15 More Turkish Citizens Held by ’ISIL’ in Iraq, 40 Indian Workers Believed to Be Kidnapped

Local Editor

A group of Turkish construction workers were among some 60 people abducted by militants from the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" [ISIL] near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, less than a week after dozens of other Turkish nationals were taken hostage in the city of Mosul.

Militants from "ISIL" seized 15 Turkish workers who were building a hospital near the Iraqi town of Dor, located between Selahaddin and Kirkuk, the Dogan News Agency said, citing a worker who escaped.

It was not immediately clear when the abduction took place.

Those abducted also included workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkmenistan, Dogan reported.

Recently last week, "ISIL" insurgents kidnapped 31 Turkish truck drivers as they overran Mosul during a lightning advance.

They then seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul, holding another 49 people.

Moreover, forty Indian employees stranded in violence-hit Iraq are "un-contactable," the foreign ministry said Wednesday, with a newspaper reporting the construction workers have been kidnapped.

A ministry spokesman said he could not confirm the report in the Times of India that insurgents have abducted the 40 workers in the northern city of Mosul amid a deteriorating security situation.

"Despite our best efforts at this stage we haven't been able to contact them. So they remain un-contactable at this stage," said spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters.

He further added: "Beyond that I am not able to confirm or verify reports of a speculative nature [kidnapping]."

"At this stage we have no reports whatsoever, no confirmation, no verification of any Indian national being involved in any violent accident or injury."

The Indian foreign ministry has set up a 24-hour control room in New Delhi to provide information on Iraq and was dispatching a former envoy to the country to assist its embassy in Baghdad.

The Times of India, citing unnamed sources, said the 40, who were working on various projects, were abducted by the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" terrorists during an evacuation of the Mosul area.

As many as 46 Indian nurses were also stranded in Iraq waiting for the turmoil to subside.
Several have told NDTV and other Indian television stations by phone that they were living like prisoners at a state-run hospital in Tikrit city after being abandoned by their employers as well as the military.

The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent jitters through world oil markets.

In recent days, "ISIL" has swept through towns in the Tigris valley north of Iraq's
capital, Baghdad.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team