Masked men kidnap 18 Turkish workers in Baghdad

reporting from baghdad  — Masked men in military uniforms kidnapped 18 Turkish workers in Baghdad early Wednesday, bundling them into several SUVs and speeding away in a brazen operation that laid bare serious security gaps in the heavily defended city.

Iraqi and Turkish officials said the 18 are employed by Nurol Insaat, a Turkish construction company contracted to build a sports complex in the sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City. The kidnappers stormed the site, where the workers were sleeping in caravans, breaking down doors and disarming the guards before taking the workers away, they said.

The Iraqi officials said an Iraqi national was kidnapped along with the Turks.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi blamed organized crime for the kidnapping, but did not elaborate.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said those kidnapped included 14 workers, three engineers and one accountant. He said the kidnappers specifically targeted Turkish nationals, picking them out from the rest and leaving behind workers from other countries.

Neither the identity nor the motives of the kidnappers were immediately known, though both criminal gangs and the Islamic State extremist group have kidnapped foreigners in the past.

Turkey recently began launching airstrikes against the militants in Syria and allowing U.S. warplanes to use bases in southeastern Turkey to strike the group.