Report on hostages execution ‘seems credible’: Turkish diplomat.

ANKARA (AFP) - A television report that three Turkish hostages had been executed in Iraq “seems credible,” a Turkish diplomat said.

“I cannot give you a 100-percent confirmation at the moment but the report seems credible. There are signs that the executions are true,” the diplomat told AFP.

He said the hostages appeared to have been killed by the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, thought to be run by suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

The diplomat declined to identify the victims, but said they had not been known to be in captivity so far.

Police and medical officers in Iraq told AFP that three Turkish drivers were found shot dead on the roadside outside the rebel den of Samarra north of Baghdad, apparently the hostages.