Militants release kidnapped Turkish workers

The workers had been in captivity since September 2, when militants took them away from a stadium construction site run by the Turkish firm Nurol Insaat in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City.

Davutoglu said on Twitter he had talked with the workers by phone and that their health was good. He said the workers would soon return home to Turkey.

"I thank from my heart all our Iraqi friends who showed great effort for our workers during this period," Davutoglu wrote. "We will continue to be by Iraq's side just as in the past to rebuild Iraq with our government, companies and people."

Eighteen Turkish workers were originally kidnapped. Two of them were released on September 16.

Iraq is rife with Shiite militias as the country tries to push back the Islamic State. The group that apparently took the Turkish workers hostage had issued a number of political demands.

In the video released after the kidnapping, the militants threatened to attack Turkish interests if their demands for Turkey to halt the flow of Sunni jihadi militants into Iraq and to order rebel forces to stop besieging Shiite villages in Syria were not met.

The group also demanded Turkey stop the flow of "stolen oil from Kurdistan through Turkish territory."

Turkey's second largest trading partner is Iraq, where Turkish construction and contracting companies play a leading role.

cs/sms (AP, AFP, dpa)