Turkey has rejected the demands of militants threatening to behead three Turks held hostage in Iraq during US President George W. Bush's visit and on the eve of the formal start of Iraqi self-rule.
Militants loyal to suspected al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in a statement to Al Jazeera yesterday that the three hostages would be executed within 72 hours unless Turks stopped working with US-led forces in Iraq.
"Turkey has been fighting terrorist activity for more than 20 years," Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters in Istanbul. "They ask many things, they demand many things. We never consider them with seriousness."
Al Jazeera showed footage of the three hostages crouching in front of masked gunmen and holding up their passports. Turkey is not part of the US-led force in Iraq but many nationals work as drivers and support staff for US forces.
Zarqawi's group beheaded a South Korean hostage last week after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq and last month decapitated a US captive. Both killings were filmed in footage posted on websites used by Islamists.
Zarqawi also has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks, most recently a wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities on Thursday that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three US soldiers.
Washington has offered $10 million for Zarqawi's capture. "He remains the number one target inside this country," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US military in Iraq, said.
Insurgents have staged multiple attacks this month to try to disrupt the formal handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Wednesday. More than 20 car bombs have exploded across Iraq this month. US and Iraqi officials say they expect more attacks in coming days.
Yesterday evening two car bombs were detonated in a busy street Hilla, a town 60 miles south of Baghdad. The US military said the latest casualty reports showed 23 people were killed and 58 were wounded.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told CBS News that violence could force a delay in national elections due to be held by the end of January. But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Washington wanted the polls to happen on time.
The threat to kill the three Turks cast a shadow over Mr Bush's visit to Turkey. Mr Bush met Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday as 20,000 protesters marched against his policies in Iraq. Turkish public opinion was strongly against the war even before the latest Turkish hostages were seized.
The kidnappers' 72-hour deadline ends during a NATO summit in Istanbul tomorrow and Tuesday at which the controversial issue of a NATO role in Iraq will be discussed.
Officials say NATO will agree to help train fledgling Iraqi security forces - a far cry from Washington's initial hopes to have a NATO troop deployment in Iraq. France and Germany, which opposed the Iraq war, shot down that idea.
"We anticipate that at this summit, heads of state will end up agreeing that NATO will in fact have a role in training and equipping the Iraqi security forces," US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told BBC television in Istanbul.
Underscoring the frail security situation in Iraq, a loud explosion sounded across central Baghdad on Sunday and smoke could be seen rising from inside the Green Zone headquarters of the US-led administration, a favoured target for insurgents.
US soldiers confirmed two rockets or mortars landed inside the Green Zone, a complex that includes palaces formerly used by Saddam Hussein. There was no word on casualties.