A Kuwaiti firm whose Turkish contractor has one of its drivers held hostage in Iraq, said Sunday it has ceased all operations in the war-torn country, appealing for the captive's release.
"We have ceased all our operations in Iraq. We appeal to the captors to release the driver Medhat Chiwi," Ghassan Jassim Abul, director general of Saqr Al-Kuwait Transport Company, told AFP.
"This is a humanitarian appeal for his family and children."
A number of Turkish truckers employed with Kuwaiti companies are now refusing to go in to Iraq for fear of being taken hostage.
A group calling itself the "Islamic Resistance Movement - Noman Brigades", said Saturday it had taken Chiwi hostage and threatened to behead him unless his firm and other Turkish companies co-operating with US troops pull out within two days.
Chiwi works as a driver for the Turkish Inaya company, which has a contract with the Kuwaiti firm, which, according to Abul, transported food supplies to Iraq.
Most of the supplies were sent to Iraqi companies, but small quantities were sent to US forces, he said.
Several Kuwaiti companies have won lucrative contracts worth billions of dollars to transport various types of supplies to US forces in Iraq following the ousting of former president Saddam Hussein in April last year.
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