Two of 18 kidnapped Turkish workers freed in Iraq

Two of 18 Turkish workers kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad this month have been freed in the southern city of Basra in front of a Turkish company's construction site, officials told Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 16. 

The release of the two could be a message showing that the militant group has "taken a step" according to an initial assessment from Ankara, which believes the kidnapping is not the work of gangs but was conducted by a group linked to Shiite militias in Iraq. 

"Two of our 18 fellow citizen abducted in Baghdad have been released. The two released workers are Necdet Y?lmaz and Ercan Özpilavc?," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç told the Do?an News Agency. The released workers said that the remaining Turkish nationals were also in good health, according to the Turkish officials. 

One of the workers might have been released because he is quite old and has health problems, said sources, who asked to remain anonymous. The man might have also been released because he has two sons and three grandsons among the kidnapped, and the group did not want to harm so many members from the same family.

The two were among 18 employees of major Turkish construction firm Nurol ?n?aat kidnapped on Sept. 2 in the Sadr City area of north Baghdad, where they were working on a football stadium project.

The group has not asked for any ransom money and kidnapping is not the particular purview of gangs, sources told the Daily News, stressing the political motive of the kidnapping.

An unknown militant group, Furaq al-Mawt, or "Death Squads," claimed the kidnappings in a video posted online last week and issued a list of demands it said Ankara must fulfil for them to be freed. 

Sources said the third demand was the...