Turkey confirms driver killed

"A representative of ours in Iraq identified the man as driver Ramazan Erkul. The other man was an Iraqi," the diplomat told AFP.

The bodies of the two men were taken to a morgue in Tikrit after being found in Baiji in northern Iraq, he said.

"We do not know whether the driver was a hostage. He did not figure on our list of missing Turkish nationals in Iraq," the diplomat explained.

"It is said that they were shot in the head," he added.

Erkul had entered Iraq on August 20. No other details were immediately available.

The Qatar-based al-Jazeera television quoted Iraqi police as saying late yesterday that the bodies of two Turkish hostages shot dead have been found in Baiji.

"Al-Jazeera learned from sources in the Iraqi police that the bodies of two Turkish hostages executed by gunfire were found on the main road near the Al-Sharkat area in the town of Baiji," the report said.

A group calling itself the "Islamic Tawheed (Unification) Group" meanwhile posted a statement on an Islamist website threatening to use force to stop Turkey sending supplies to the US army via its border with Iraq.

At least six Turks are known to be in captivity in Iraq.

A Turkish worker, Murat Yuce, was shown on an internet video on August 2 being blindfolded and shot three times in the head. He was the first Turk to be executed at the hands of Iraqi hostage-takers.

Several Turkish truckers, meanwhile, have been killed in violence on the roads of the country.

Several others, mostly truck drivers, have been kidnapped and then released.

The diplomat declined to say how many Turkish nationals are being held captive or missing in Iraq. "There are some groups which have turned this (hostage-taking) into a kind of a commercial activity. Revealing figures will only encourage them to go on," he said.