Top Shiite cleric condemns kidnapping of Turks in Iraq

This image made from a militant video posted on a social media site on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, purports to show abducted Turkish men seated, as five militants in black masks stand behind them with machine guns, in front of a blue wall emblazoned with the group’s alleged name, “Death Squads” in Arabic. A video from a previously unknown militant group has surfaced on social media showing 18 Turkish workers abducted in Baghdad last week and threatening Ankara with the “most violent means.” (Militan Video via AP) This image made from a militant video posted on a social media site on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, purports to show abducted Turkish men seated, as five militants in black masks stand behind them with machine guns, in front of a blue wall emblazoned with the group’s alleged name, “Death Squads” in Arabic. A video from a previously unknown militant group has surfaced on social media showing 18 Turkish workers abducted in Baghdad last week and threatening Ankara with the “most violent means.” (Militan Video via AP)

By Associated Press September 12, 2015 1 min read

BAGHDAD (AP) – The top Shiite cleric in Iraq has called for the release of 18 Turkish workers kidnapped in Baghdad last week.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s statement, issued Saturday, came a day after a video released by a shadowy militant group showed the captives, who were snatched up from a construction site in Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated Sadr City. The group’s name and slogan suggest it is Shiite.

The influential cleric denounced the kidnapping as “unethical, illegitimate and illegal.”

The group in the video demanded Turkey halt the flow of militants into Iraq, lift a “siege” on Syrian Shiite cities and stop the passage of oil from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region via Turkey in defiance of Baghdad.