Three Turks kidnapped in Afghanistan are freed

ANKARA (Reuters) - Three Turkish citizens who were kidnapped in Afghanistan last month have been released and are due to return home this week, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear whether the released Turks included two engineers kidnapped in Afghanistan in late October.

Taliban insurgents, criminals and armed groups have kidnapped dozens of foreigners in Afghanistan in the past two years. Most have been freed unharmed, but a few have been killed.

The Foreign Ministry said the three who had been released were now at the Turkish embassy in Kabul and were expected to return to Turkey on November 28.

"We thank the Afghan authorities for their help and active cooperation in the process of rescuing our citizens," the ministry said in a statement.

Turkey has some 800 troops in Afghanistan, in and around Kabul, as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

(Writing by Paul de Bendern; Editing by Richard Balmforth)