Eight Siemens workers rescued from Iraq, says Germany

Reuters

Spiegel Online reported that Iraqi military helicopters and an aircraft chartered by Siemens had flown the foreign workers out of the danger zone on June 15

The German foreign ministry said on June 17 that eight Germans working for the engineering company Siemens had been rescued from an area of Iraq that has fallen into the hands of insurgents north of Baghdad.

"All the German employees who were trapped in the power plant in Baiji are now in safety," said a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

Although the workers were not in acute danger, fears had grown that the Islamists might take the foreign workers hostage.

Last week Sunni militants moved into the northern town of Baiji, home to Iraq's largest refinery, before later withdrawing to nearby villages.

Spiegel Online reported that Iraqi military helicopters and an aircraft chartered by Siemens had flown the foreign workers out of the danger zone on June 15. The technicians had been modernising the plant.

Siemens declined to comment.

Some 49 members of Turkey’s Mosul Consulate and 31 truck drivers were kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), after they seized Mosul late June 9. One of the Turkish drivers managed to escape over the weekend.