Two Turkish kidnapped workers released by Iraqi militia

Two of 18 Turkish constuction workers kidnapped in Iraq on 2 September have been released, police sources in the southern city of Basra have told al-Araby al-Jadeed.

Gunmen seized 18 employees of major Turkish construction firm Nurol Insaat on September 2 in the Sadr City area of northern Baghdad - a Shia stronghold - where they were working on a football stadium project.

Men armed with submachine guns and wearing black uniforms and balaclavas stood behind 18 men said to be the kidnapped Turks in a video posted online.

The militants identified themselves as "Furaq al-Mawt," or "Death Squads," in text appearing behind them alongside the words "We are at your service, O Hussein."

Iraq's prime minister Haider Abadi personally undertook efforts to secure the release of the hostages.

Abadi issued a number of reforms last month and was believed to have wanted the activities of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces curtailed.

On 4 September, an Iraqi soldier was killed in clashes with gunmen suspected of being behind the kidnapping of the Turks.

Intelligence had pinned down one of the suspects at Baghdad's Palestine Street, and when Iraqi forces moved in armed men fired at the soldiers, killing one and wounding three.

An Iraqi television channel said that the building was a headquarters of the Ketaeb Hizballah miltia.

Syria war

One of their demands of the militia was that Turkey order rebel forces to stop besieging four Shia villages in northern Syria.

One of their demands was that Turkey order rebel forces to stop besieging four Shia villages in northern Syria.

This all indicates the militants are Shia, but could also potentially be an attempt to mislead, and the group's makeup and provenance were not immediately clear.

The demands, addressed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, included Ankara stopping "the flow of militants from Turkey to Iraq," and "the passage of stolen oil from Kurdistan through Turkish territory."

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region is independently exporting oil via Turkey in a move that the federal government considers illegal - a point of contention between Baghdad and Ankara.

But that demand could also potentially refer to oil stolen by the Islamic State group (IS, formerly ISIS), which overran large parts of Iraq last year.

"If Erdogan and his party do not respond, we will crush Turkish interests and their agents in Iraq by the most violent means," the militants said.

Dozens of Turks have been kidnapped in Iraq by IS over the past 18 months and later released.

The latest abductions took place in Sadr City, a stronghold of Shia paramilitary forces opposed to IS.