Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Breaking - Turkish Plane Hijacked

The BBC is reporting that a plane on an internal flight in Turkey has been hijacked.
A Turkish plane on an internal flight has been hijacked, according to Turkish media reports.

CNN-Turk TV said the plane had been flying from Diyarbakir in the south-east to Istanbul, but had later landed in Ankara.

The TV said police had arrested a man involved in the hijacking who claimed to have explosives on board.

The plane belonged to a private company, Pegasus, the firm's chief executive told the AP news agency.
Reuters has just as few details but suggests the hijacker was a woman and hints at an Iran connection:
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities on Tuesday arrested a woman passenger who hijacked a commercial plane travelling from southeast Turkey to Istanbul, CNN Turk said.

The television network, quoting officials, said the woman had asked to be taken to Iran. The Pegasus Airline plane, which CNN Turk said was carrying 175 passengers, landed in the capital Ankara.
Here's how this one will play on the far Right.

If the hijacker turns out to be an Islamist or connected to Iran in any way then this will get huge play, being yet another example of the barbarism of the Moslem hordes who are on a religious quest towards a Clash of Civilizations with the Christian West...and we should nuke Mecca and Teheran right now.

If the hijacker turns out to be a member of the Kurdish PKK terror group who have killed tens of thousands in Turkey over the past few decades and who are effectively sheltered by the US occupation of Iraq right now...then there will be a deafening silence as usual. It is only a war on some terror.

For myself, I'm glad this incident seems to have been resolved without loss of life and I condemn all terrorism, not just the terror the Bush administration dissaproves of.

Update Reuters now says it was a male hijacker who gave himself up to the Turkish authotities and that earlier reports of a female hijacker could not be confirmed. No mention of Iran this time, so presumably that couldn't be confirmed either.

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