A Turkish man who held two people hostage aboard a passenger airplane has told police that his action was to protest at American threats to attack Iraq, Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.
A top police officer told the news agency that the hostage-taker said in his initial testimony he wanted to denounce any US military action against Baghdad and "to let the world know about me."
Ali Ilker Urbak, 28, took two flight attendants hostage aboard a Turkish Airlines plane at Istanbul's Ataturk airport Friday by pretending that a stack of candles were dynamite sticks, but he was soon subdued.
The incident took place just after the plane landed when most passengers had already got off the plane. Security forces stormed the plane and subdued Urbak in less than a minute. No one was injured.
Urbak had first demanded that the plane fly to Moscow, Istanbul's deputy governor Saim Eskioglu said.
Hurriyet newspaper reported Saturday that the man was intoxicated and quoted his girlfriend as saying that he wanted to go to Moscow to see a child from a former Russian girlfriend. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
