40 Indians in Iraq 'uncontactable'; Turkey workers taken hostage

Forty Indian employees stranded in violence-hit Iraq are "uncontactable", the foreign ministry said Wednesday, with a newspaper reporting the construction workers have been kidnapped.

A ministry spokesman said he could not confirm the report in the Times of India that insurgents have abducted the 40 workers in the northern city of Mosul amid a deteriorating security situation.

"Despite our best efforts at this stage we haven't been able to contact them. So they remain uncontactable at this stage," said spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters.

"Beyond that I am not able to confirm or verify reports of a speculative nature (kidnapping)," Akbaruddin added.

"At this stage we have no reports whatsoever, no confirmation, no verification of any Indian national being involved in any violent accident or injury."

The Indian foreign ministry has set up a 24-hour control room in New Delhi to provide information on Iraq and was dispatching a former envoy to the country to assist its embassy in Baghdad.

The Times of India, citing unnamed sources, said the 40, who were working on various projects, were abducted by the militants during an evacuation of the Mosul area.

Since launching their offensive on June 9, the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has captured Mosul and a big chunk of mainly-Sunni Arab territory stretching south towards the capital.

As many as 46 Indian nurses were also stranded in Iraq waiting for the turmoil to subside.

Several have told NDTV and other Indian television stations by phone that they were living like prisoners at a state-run hospital in Tikrit city after being abandoned by their employers as well as the military.

The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent jitters through world oil markets as the militants have advanced ever nearer to Baghdad, leaving the Shiite-led government in disarray.

Turkish construction workers taken hostage in Iraq

A group of Turkish construction workers were among some 60 people abducted by Islamist militants near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, less than a week after dozens of other Turkish nationals were taken hostage in Mosul, according to a news report.

Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized 15 Turkish workers who were building a hospital near the town of Dor, located between Selahaddin and Kirkuk, the Dogan News Agency said, citing a worker who escaped. It was not immediately clear when the abduction took place.

Those abducted also included workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkmenistan, Dogan reported.

ISIL insurgents kidnapped 31 Turkish truck drivers as they overran the northern city of Mosul last week during a lightning advance. They then seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul, holding another 49 people.

ISIL and other Sunni militants have swept through towns in the Tigris valley north of Baghdad in recent days.

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