BAGHDAD, 28 June 2004 — Turkey rejected yesterday the demands of militants threatening to behead three Turks held hostage in Iraq during US President George W. Bush’s visit to Turkey and on the eve of the formal start of Iraqi self-rule.
Militants loyal to suspected Al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi said in a statement to Al-Jazeera television on Saturday that the three hostages would be executed within 72 hours unless Turks stopped working with US-led forces in Iraq.
“Turkey has been fighting terrorist activity for more than 20 years,” Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters in Istanbul. “They ask many things, they demand many things. We never consider them with seriousness.”
Al-Jazeera showed footage of the three hostages crouching in front of masked gunmen and holding up their passports. Turkey is not part of the U.S-led force in Iraq but many nationals work as drivers and support staff for US forces.
Zarqawi’s group beheaded a South Korean hostage last week after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq and last month decapitated a US captive. Both killings were filmed in footage posted on Websites used by Islamists.
Zarqawi also has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks, most recently a wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities on Thursday that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers.
Washington is cooperating vigorously with Turkey’s government to help secure the release of the three Turkish citizens, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told US television yesterday.
Powell said in an interview with CNN taped in Ankara that he had assured Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan of US assistance in finding the captives.
“We assured the prime minister that we were doing everything we could to secure their safe release,” Powell said on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO allies in Turkey.
