An Iraqi Shiite militant group on Wednesday released 16 Turkish construction workers abducted in Baghdad earlier this month.
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Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said through his Twitter account that the workers were handed over to the Turkish ambassador in Iraq and that they were all in good health.
The workers had been in captivity since September 2, when militants took them away from a stadium construction site run by the Turkish firm Nurol Insaat in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also congratulated over the phone Turkey’s Baghdad Ambassador Faruk Kaymakci and two of the freed workers, and offered them his best wishes. He did not provide information on the circumstances of the release.
Iraqi security officials confirmed Wednesday that the remained hostages had been found alive and safe near Mosayeb, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, and had been transported to the capital. They will be brought back to Turkey as soon as possible.
In June 2014, jihadists from the Islamic State group kidnapped 49 staff from Turkey’s consulate in Mosul after seizing control of the city. Two of them, Necdet Yilmaz and Ercan Ozpilavci, were released on September 17.
Kaymakci had accompanied the released workers in a auto from southern Iraq’s Basra region to the Turkish embassy in Baghdad. While kidnapping for ransom has continued, large-scale abductions have been nearly unheard of in the past few years.
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced Wednesday 16 of the Turkish workers will be returning home safely.
