ISTANBUL - Turkish security forces killed a lone hijacker, believed to be a Kurdish militant, in a pre-dawn operation on Saturday to rescue more than 20 passengers held hostage for 12 hours on a ferry in northwest Turkey.
The decision was taken to carry out a joint security forces operation at 5:35 a.m. (0335 GMT), Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters.
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"It was clear that the assailant was a terror group member," he said. He was between 28 and 30 years old and was carrying a device with a button and cables which bomb disposal experts were analyzing, Mutlu said.
Earlier reports said up to five suspected Kurdish militants armed with
explosives carried out the hijacking on the high-speed 'Kartepe' ferry.
On Friday night, Turkish commandos on coastguard vessels tracked the
"sea bus" in the Sea of Marmara before it ran low on fuel and had to
anchor west of Istanbul. The ferry had been on a short run between the
towns of Izmit and Karamursel.
Friends and relatives had waited for news at the two ports, while fuel
tankers had headed for the area where the vessel was anchored, according
to media reports.
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim had told reporters in the capital
Ankara that the hijacker had not made any concrete demands and had only
sought fuel, food and drink.
Shortly before 5:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) a flurry of activity was evident on
the ferry's main deck. Hazy television pictures showed figures moving in
the aisle between rows of empty seats. A few people were apparently
wearing life jackets.
Ambulances and police teams had been waiting on the nearby shore.
"There is information that they are from a wing of the terror
organization," Yildirim said, referring to the militant Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in the
southeast of the country.
A hijacking would represent a change in tactics for the PKK which
frequently carries out attacks on security forces in the mainly Kurdish
southeast. Kurdish, leftist and Islamic militants are all active in
Turkey.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK insurgency since the group took up arms in 1984.
There was no immediate comment from the PKK.