ERBIL
An estimated 60 foreign workers, including 15 Turks, were captured by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in northeastern Iraq on Tuesday afternoon, according to a released hostage.
The workers were captured by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in the Hamrin mountains while fleeing from clashes in many Iraqi cities, Turgay Hermzlo, an Iraqi worker, who was captured with the group and later released, told Anadolu Agency.
"When we reached the Hamrin mountains, ISIL militants stopped the vehicles that were carrying us. We were more than 100 workers but after verifying our identities, they freed Iraqis nationals and detained 60 foreign workers, including 15 Turks as well as Pakistani, Nepalese and Turkmen."
He said that the Turks are engineers working in Tikrit on the construction of a private hospital, adding that ”all foreign workers were heading to Sulaimaniyah International Airport in Sulaymaniyah city, controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga forces."
The Hamrin mountains extend from the Diyala province bordering Iran, northwest of the Tigris River; crossing northern Salah ad-Din province and southern Kirkuk province.
On June 11, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Turkish consul along with 49 staff and family members were abducted by ISIL militants in Mosul. The abductees are safe and efforts are ongoing to ensure their release.
On June 10, 31 Turkish truck drivers, who were delivering fuel to a power plant in Iraq, were also kidnapped in the Qayyarah district of Mosul.
ISIL, who already controls parts of Syria, has extended its reach into Iraq since June 10, when it seized Iraq's second-largest city Mosul and soon afterwards took near-complete control of the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in recent months, which the Iraqi government blames on ISIL.
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