A Turkish construction company confirmed Monday that 10 of its employees had been taken hostage in neighboring Iraq and shown in a video broadcast by an Arab television channel. In a video broadcast Saturday by Al-Jazeerah, a militant group, said it would kill the 10 hostages if the Ankara-based "VINSAN" construction company did not pull out of Iraq within three days. Monday, Nalan Bayrak, a spokeswoman for the firm, refused to comment on the threat, and said the company had not yet made any decision about its operations in Iraq. She said she did not know when the kidnappings occurred, but "we are closely following developments." The 10 hostages were all Turks, Bayrak said, and most were truck drivers. Six of the company's truck were also missing, she said. Bayrak said the firm was one of 21 international companies taking part in a US$160 million (¤131,000) road tender in Iraq. She added that the company was Turkish _ not American-Turkish as reported by Al-Jazeerah.
