Baghdad: Six foreign hostages - four Jordanians and two Turks - have been released in Iraq today (Aug 4, 2004), two days after militants executed a Turkish truck driver, offering a reprieve to the country's prolonged hostage crisis.

Four Jordanian truck drivers, kidnapped eight days ago, were released in the city of Fallujah, a self-styled Iraqi mediator said.

Unidentified sources claimed that the hostages were freed with the help of Fallujah's advisory council for the mujahedeen.

There were celebrations in Turkey as Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul confirmed that two Turkish truck drivers, among the dozens of foreign hostages in Iraq, had been released.

"This good news has made us happy," the Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying. Al-Jazeera television had reported earlier that two Turkish hostages threatened with beheading had been freed.

They were held by militants loyal to Iraq's alleged Al-Qaeda chief, Abu Mussab Zarqawi, held responsible for a string of kidnappings and killings.

The Turkish catering company Bilintur, which provides services to the US army, had announced yesterday that it was withdrawing its remaining workers from Iraq.