Hijacker killed by Turkish marines

TURKISH commandos killed a lone hijacker, identified as a Kurdish militant armed with a bomb, in a pre-dawn operation yesterday to rescue more than 20 passengers and crew held hostage for 12 hours on a high-speed ferry near Istanbul.

Hostages aboard the ferry later described how the hijacker was shot dead minutes after the commandos slipped aboard.

“There was no chance left we’d capture him alive. The long phone calls to persuade him (to surrender) failed,” interior minister Idris Sahin said. Around 450 grammes of plastic explosive were found on the body.

None of the 18 passengers or six crew were hurt, but some were taken to a hospital for checks after their ordeal. The dead hijacker was identified as Mensur Guzel, a member of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Three people connected with the dead man had been detained.

Officials had described the man as carrying a device with cables with a switch.

Since Friday evening, coastguard vessels with commandos aboard had tracked the “sea bus” in the Sea of Marmara before it ran low on fuel and dropped anchor.

Orders were given for marine commandos to storm the ferry at 5:35 am as it lay anchored a few kilometres off shore, some 30 miles west of Istanbul.

“The terrorist had told the crew to gather us upstairs, we never saw him. He sent us tea and biscuits,” said one hostage, Kadir Altunogl.

“We heard five or six gunshots before dawn. We had opened the rear exit door of the ferry to let the commandos in.”