Four Turkish engineers working for a construction firm and their Afghan driver were kidnapped Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, a senior local official told AFP. The men were abducted in the restive Paktia province as they travelled from a building site in Dand Wa Patan district, which borders Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, to provincial capital Gardez.
"Four Turkish engineers and their Afghan driver were kidnapped by unknown gunmen and have been taken away to an unknown location," Paktia's deputy governor Abdul Rahman Mangal told AFP.
"We have deployed security and intelligence organisations. A wide-ranging operation is ongoing in the area but there is no information about the hostages and kidnappers so far."
Mangal added that the men worked for a firm, which built border posts. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident.
Criminal groups and insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban.
Turkey, Nato's only Muslim-majority member, has 1,815 troops in Afghanistan, serving in Jawzjan province in the north, Warak in central Afghanistan and the capital, Kabul.
Turkey's mission in Afghanistan is limited to patrols and its troops do not take part in combat operations.