Seven Turkish hostages seized in Iraq this week were freed on today, but a Lebanese and two Iraqi hostages abducted in a separate incident were killed it later emerged.
A Lebanese diplomat said Iraqi kidnappers had killed a Lebanese citizen and two of his Iraqi colleagues after seizing them as they travelled to work in Baghdad on Thursday.
The body of Mr Hussein Ali Alyan (28) from Qalawiya in south Lebanon, and those of the two Iraqis were dumped on a road between Falluja and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, according to sources at Lebanon's Foreign Ministry.
The three men had been working for a Lebanese telecommunications company. Two other Iraqis who were seized with them were released.
The seven Turks, employees of Turkish food services and construction firm Serkat Insaat, were kidnapped by gunmen in the restive town of Falluja on Monday.
Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired a videotape on Thursday showing what it said were four of the seven held by a group calling itself the Jihad Squadrons, an Iraqi Islamist group, which demanded that Turkish companies leave Iraq.
"They have been released, they are in good health," a Turkish diplomat in Baghdad said.
The diplomat said he had no further details on who had abducted them.
"No one has claimed reponsibility," he added while declining to say whether the embassy had helped to negotiate their release.