Iraqi police said on Thursday that two Turkmen youths were released after being kidnapped last month by Kurdish criminal groups in the ethnically mixed northern oil city of Kirkuk.

- The police force in coordination with an anti-terrorist unit close to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) managed to free two Turkmen students kidnapped - police chief Jamal Taher Baqr said.

The victims, both in their teens and the sons of wealthy Turkmen families, were abducted by gunmen while being driven to school in central Kirkuk on October 20.

They were identified as Ahmad Mohammad Nur al-Din, the son of a famous ophthalmologist in the city, and Judat Sonay, from a wealthy family which paid a 50,000-dollar ransom, police said.

- The kidnappers were not acting with political motives but to collect a ransom - said Torhan Yussef, the deputy police chief and a Turkmen.

Kirkuk has a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, and long-standing Kurdish demands for the city to be incorporated in their autonomous region in the north have fanned ethnic tensions.

There has been a spate of abductions in the past few weeks, including that of a 12-year-old Sunni, a 13-year-old Turkmen and a 16-year-old Kurd, according to police.