Turkish Hostage Shot to Death in Iraq

By RAVI NESSMAN

Masked gunmen shot a blindfolded Turkish hostage three times in the head on a gruesome Internet video meant to warn Muslim workers to stay out of Iraq. Soon after the video was discovered Monday, Turkish truckers announced they would stop hauling goods for U.S. forces in hopes of saving two other Turkish captives.

The truckers’ decision was another victory for militants who have taken more than 70 foreigners hostage as leverage to drive coalition forces and anyone supporting them out of the country. Between 200 and 300 trucks cross Turkey’s southern border into Iraq every day to bring fuel, food and other supplies to U.S. forces.

"As of today, those trucks won’t be crossing into Iraq," said Cahit Soysal, head of the International Transporters’ Association.

In recent weeks, militants, buoyed by the Philippines’ decision to pull its troops out of Iraq to save a Filipino truck driver - have intensified their kidnapping efforts. A few companies have withdrawn from Iraq, and several countries - including the Philippines, Bulgaria, Kenya and Egypt - have warned their citizens not to work here.

The same al-Qaida-linked group that killed the Turk said Monday it would free a Somali captive because his Kuwaiti employer agreed to cease business in Iraq.

The killings of foreign hostages has been widely denounced by Iraqi religious figures, including radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

On Monday, U.S. Marines fought with gunmen protecting al-Sadr’s house in clashes that killed one woman and wounded three other people in the southern city of Najaf, hospital officials said.

Al-Sadr, whose followers fought a two-month rebellion against U.S. forces in April that died down after a series of truces, was in his house at the time, witnesses said.
(AP)

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