Turkey has confirmed that 18 construction workers have been kidnapped by unknown individuals in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
“18 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,” he added.
Ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Saad Maan told Reuters that the workers had been captured in the Shia-majority district of Habibya in the northeast of the city.
No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Last year 46 Turkish citizens were captured by the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul following the fall of the city to the group in June.
They were later released and returned to Turkey following what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called “intense efforts that lasted days and weeks”.
