Turkey rejects demands on fate of Iraq hostages

11.45pm UPDATE

BAGHDAD - Turkey rejected on Sunday the demands of militants in Iraq threatening to behead three Turkish hostages during US President George W Bush's visit to Istanbul for a Nato summit.

Militants loyal to suspected al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in a statement to Al Jazeera television on Saturday 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."

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.

Guerrillas have staged multiple attacks this month in a bid to disrupt the formal handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Wednesday. US and Iraqi officials say they expect more attacks in coming days.

On Saturday evening two car bombs were detonated in a busy street in the town of Hilla, 100km south of Baghdad. The US military said the latest casualty reports showed that 23 people were killed and 58 wounded.

More than 20 car bombs have exploded across Iraq this month.

The threat to kill the three Turks has cast a shadow over Bush's visit to Turkey. The 72-hour deadline ends during a Nato summit in Istanbul on Monday 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.

Washington has offered US$10 million ($15.93 million) for Zarqawi's capture.

"He remains the number one target inside this country. He is a very effective terrorist," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US military in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad on Saturday.

US forces mounted three "precision strikes" in the rebellious Iraqi city of Falluja last week aimed at destroying Zarqawi's safe houses and killing his followers.

Kimmitt said the latest strike, on Friday, may have come close to killing the Jordanian-born militant. Senior military officials said up to 25 militants were killed in that attack.

Iraqi guerrillas and tribal leaders in Falluja have denied Zarqawi is in the city, where hundreds of Iraqis were killed in April in fierce fighting between US Marines and guerrillas. Critics say Falluja is now a safe haven for foreign militants.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told CBC News that violence could force a delay in national elections due to be held by the end of January. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, responding to the comments, said it was too early to gauge whether a delay might be necessary.

Rumsfeld said on Sunday that Washington may not have to send more troops to Iraq. The United States has about 140,000 troops there, joined by nearly 25,000 other foreign troops.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq