Kurdish rebel killed after hijacking Turkish ferry

---

ISTANBUL, Nov 12 (AFP): A Kurdish rebel who hijacked a Turkish ferry with 24 people aboard in northwestern Turkey was killed early Saturday and his hostages brought to safety after a 12-hour ordeal. Commandos stormed the ferry at dawn and killed the hijacker off the coast of Silivri, a town west of Istanbul, media reports and hostage accounts said. "We saw the commandos (boarding). They finished it in 10 minutes," former hostage Ceyhun Tezel told the NTV news channel. "We didn't see them (killing the hijacker), but we heard three shots first, and then three more," he said, adding: "We prayed and thanked to God that we survived." "One of our friends opened the door and (the commandos) came in. We kept our silence. There were about 15 people," another former hostage, an elderly man with silver hair told NTV after testifying to police. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sener told NTV that the assailant was 27-year-old Mensur Guzel, head of the youth branch of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Kocaeli province, and carrying a bomb. The rebel was carrying three pieces of A-4 explosives, each 450 grams (about a pound), the minister said, adding that the incident was "serious" but "successfully" handled. He said it was not possible to arrest the hijacker alive. "Officers tried to convince him (to surrender) during the whole night," he said. "They told him everything they could."