WORLD
TURKISH HOSTAGES SHOT DEAD IN IRAQ
"Al-Jazeera learned from sources in the Iraqi police that the bodies of two Turkish hostages executed by gunfire were found on the main road near the Al-Sharkat area in the town of Baiji," a key oil refinery town in the Sunni Muslim belt that stretches north and west from the Iraqi capital, it said.
Police transferred the two bodies to Al-Sharkat hospital, the Qatar-based satellite news channel said, without giving further details.
A group calling itself the "Islamic Tawheed (Unification) Group" meanwhile posted a statement on an Islamist website threatening to use force to stop Turkey sending "military equipment and assistance to the invading forces" via its border with Iraq.
The reported execution of the two Turks comes just a day after the killing of kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.
Turkey's NTV news channel on Wednesday aired footage of two Turks, Abdullah Ozdemir and Ali Daskin, both engineers kidnapped from their worksite at an unidentified location in Iraq.
The video showed armed militants threatening to execute them unless their company withdraws from Iraq within 72 hours.
Turkey's Anatolia news agency later reported that the pair's employer had announced it was ending operations in Iraq.
The abduction of the two engineers brought to at least six the number of Turks known to be in captivity in Iraq.
Several Turkish men, mostly truck drivers, have been kidnapped in the war-torn country and then released.
But one Turkish hostage was shown on a video posted on Islamist websites on August 2 being blindfolded and shot three times in the head by his hooded captors.
The statement posted on the internet Friday said the warning was being sent to the Turkish government and people to stop sending supplies to US-led forces in order to avoid bloodshed.
"But if our demand is not met, we will use our own means to deter and stop the assistance going through Turkish border crossings with Iraq ... You will pay a heavy price," it said.
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.