KGL agrees to leave Iraq to get hostages released

The Kuwaiti firm has decided to halt operations in the troubled country, bowing to the kidnappers' condition for their release.

The Kuwaiti company which has seven truck drivers — including three Indians — held hostage in Iraq has decided to halt operations in the troubled country, bowing to the kidnappers' condition for their release, it said on Friday.

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"The Kuwait Gulf and Link (KGL) welcomes the statement by the ... (group) on its willingness to release the seven drivers," a company statement said. "And so the company has agreed to stop its operations in Iraq and would like to say it has no presence currently in Iraq."

A KGL spokesperson, Rana Abu-Zaineh, said it was a "welcome" development and hoped for an early end to the over month-long crisis. "We confirm we have no presence or operations in Iraq," Abu-Zaineh told PTI over phone from Kuwait. "They (abductors) should believe it and release the hostages. It is for the abductors to believe us and we hope they will believe us."

A spokesperson for the company noted that KGL had already emphasised that it would do everything possible to secure freedom of the hostages, including Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdev Singh of India.