Turkish truckdrivers play it safe in Iraq as risks mount

Despite kidnappings and killings many still motivated by lucrative pay

An amateur video shows a Turkish hostage seated with masked captors at an unknown location on an unknown date. In a video tape released Saturday, militants threatened to behead him in 48 hours unless his company pulled out of the country.

By Sam Dagher - Agence France-Presse

MOSUL-DOHUK ROAD - Turkish trucker Mehmet Ali rumbles with his fuel tank trailer into a parking area off this main road in northern Iraq as Iraqi drivers prepare to take over his load.

The kidnapping and killing of Turkish truckdrivers in Iraq is forcing some to quit the violence-ravaged country, as one company said it would do Saturday to spare the life of a driver snatched on the road between Baghdad and Mosul. Others are limiting their risks or coming up with ingenious ways to outwit rebels, abductors and bandits.

Everything about Ali’s trailer is Turkish except for the words “Fuel for the Iraqi people, God is greatest,” sprayed in big black Arabic letters on the fuel tank. He stops his trailer, separates the tank from the rest of the vehicle and unscrews the Turkish registration plate from the back before handing over the load to an Iraqi driver who will make the treacherous journey further south.

“You see, the chest is Iraqi and the behind is Turkish,” jokes Hazem Al-Juhaish, 42, an Iraqi with a deep scar over his left eye. “We take all the risks now.” Ali, 40, a native of the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin, works for a private Turkish company that delivers liquefied petroleum gas to Iraqi power plants in Beiji further south and Taji on the outskirts of Baghdad, but he will only come this far into Iraqi territory, about 120 kilometers (70 miles) from the border.

Other drivers say even this short stretch of road from the border is now filled with dangers, including frequent attacks by bandits. “Every time I cross back into Turkey from Iraq, I call my family on the mobile to tell them that I am alive,” says Jalal Hasan, 45, a father of four from the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

The drivers could double the $700 they are paid now if they went all the way to Taji and triple it if they transported fuel, water or other materials for the US military. “It is not worth it; life is too precious,” says a smiling Ali.

His friend Hasan Sheikh-Musa, 32, also from Mardin, agrees, saying he used to deliver for the military but quit two months ago. He recounts how a convoy of trailers he was in, escorted by US armored vehicles, was attacked near Beiji in May. “They shot at us and even children started hurling stones at us. Except for shouting at us, the Americans did very little to defend us,” he said.

Sheikh-Hasan says most kidnappings occur in the chaos that follows such incidents or when drivers are forced to spend the night in the open if their vehicles break down. Although the International Transporters’ Association, which groups most of Turkey’s 900 land transport companies, urged its members to immediately stop carrying cargo for the US military, many are still motivated by the lucrative pay. “Many have bought their trailers with loans and doing a few jobs for the Americans is an easy way to repay the debt,” says Sheikh-Hasan.