The Croatian media reported this week that a Croatian truck driver went missing after an attack by Iraqi rebels on a convoy near the Iraqi-Turkish border.
Daliborka Soljic, the sister of the missing driver, on Tuesday evening watched in the Croatian Television offices the recordings of different TV stations and on one of them recognised her brother, who was lying wounded in a truck.
A reporter for the Jutarnji List daily reported from Iraq that the staff at the hospital morgue in Mosul reported the bodies of "two Turkish and one Yugoslav citizens", the drivers killed in the bombing attack.
The Foreign Ministry today issued a statement saying that it has been warning Croatian citizens for a year and a half to avoid travel to Iraq or, if they are in Iraq, to leave immediately since the country is considered one of the highest security risk.
The ministry recalls that at last year's meeting with Croatian companies interested in doing business in Iraq, it called for cooperation, but that only the Zagreb-based INGRA company responded and that it now has a representative in Iraq.
Hauliers and drivers working in Iraq are not legally bound to report to the Foreign Ministry or Croatian diplomatic and consular offices before travel, so they are not doing so regardless of the severity of the situation, reads the statement.
The Ministry therefore advises truck drivers planning to travel abroad to report to the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development, the Foreign Ministry, or the nearest Croatian diplomatic-consular office.
Although Croatia does not have diplomatic relations with Iraq and covers most Middle East countries, including Iraq, from its embassy in Cairo, the Foreign Ministry has been taking intensive diplomatic and consular measures, the statement said. Apart from daily contacts with Croatian embassies in Cairo, Ankara and Tehran, the Ministry has sought assistance from Poland which has a diplomatic-consular office in Iraq.
The Ministry has reached agreement with the Polish authorities for Poland to provide consular protection to Croatian citizens and has opened other channels of communication. It has also set up a task force to coordinate and act with regard to the latest events in Iraq, reads the ministry statement.