ANKARA (AFP) - Two Turks kidnapped in Afghanistan last week flew home on Monday after being freed overnight, Anatolia news agency reported.

The pair and their Afghan driver, working for a Turkish road construction company, were snatched on July 14 as they drove to their compound on the outskirts of the western city of Herat.

There were conflicting accounts of how their release was secured.

"The two Turkish nationals were freed last night and they say they paid some ransom," the regional police spokesman in Herat, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, told AFP, without being able to say what amount was paid or who the abductors were.

"The company did not coordinate their efforts with us," he said.

But the Gulsan firm, which employed the pair, denied that any ransom was paid, saying that the abductors felt remorse for their action, Anatolia reported.

Speaking in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig, where the two men were flown Monday afternoon, manager Sefik Gul said the release was secured through the help of Afghan officials and a Turk living in Afghanistan.

The abductors were not linked to Islamist militants loyal to Osama Bin Laden, he said, describing them as "bandits or marauders."

The two men were identified as Gokhan Gul, an engineer and a nephew of the Gulsan owners, and Erhan Gunduz, whose job in the company was not specified. Turkish officials had previously described both as engineers.

Gokhan Gul said they were not mistreated by their abductors.

The Taliban, the main militant group waging an insurgency against the US-backed government in Kabul, have been responsible for scores of such abductions while criminal gangs have also carried out kidnappings for ransom.

The Taliban have been holding a member of Afghanistan's parliament they abducted in Logar province -- near Kabul -- some two weeks ago.

Two French aid workers abducted in the central province of Day Kundi were kidnapped around the same time although it was not clear who has captured them.

Afghan police have said a German national abducted near Herat in mid-December is believed to have been killed after a ransom was not paid for his release.

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