Turkish plane hijacker had links to Al Qaeda

Turkish police were continuing the interrogation Monday of two men involved in Saturday’s hijacking of a passenger plane from the occupied north of Cyprus, with Turkish media reporting that one of them had links to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.

Turkish newspapers reported that Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, a Palestinian born in Egypt, had spent time in a Saudi Arabian prison with a man he named as ‘Ahmet’ who allegedly had been involved in organising the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Talikh and Turkish national Mehmet Resat Ozlu hijacked the Atlasjet plane carrying 123 passengers on Saturday morning soon after it had taken off from Ercan Airport in northern Cyprus on a flight destined for Istanbul.

The two demanded to be taken to Iran but the pilot landed the plane in the south-western Turkish holiday resort of Antalya saying he did not have enough fuel to get to Tehran.

The hijackers released all passengers and crew before surrendering just after noon. A suspected bomb the men were carrying later turned out to be toy plasticine.

Talikh claimed that he been working in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus as a waiter and that he met his Turkish accomplice a year ago. Talikh told police in a statement that both had agreed to go to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and they had asked that the plane be taken to Iran for this reason.