Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, one of the two hijackers that hijacked the Atlasjet passenger plane during a flight from northern Cyprus to Istanbul on Saturday, had been trained in al-Qaida camps, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.
Antalya police department officials were quoted as saying that Talikh, 33, had served jail time at the same prison with a person who was one of the terrorists that took part in the organization of Sept. 11 attacks and was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment in Saudi Arabia.
Talikh met Turk Mehmet Resat Ozlu in Northern Cyprus a year ago and has been room mates with him for a month, said the officials, adding that Talikh and Ozlu wanted to go to the 'Jihad zone' in Afghanistan and join the terrorist organisation al-Qaida.
On Saturday, the two hijackers surrendered to Turkish security forces at Antalya Airport in southern Turkey after hijacking a passenger plane.
The passenger plane, operated by the private Turkish airline company AtlasJet, was hijacked when it was heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus.
A total of 136 passengers and six crew members were on board the Turkish plane when the two hijackers attempted to storm into the cockpit some 20 to 25 minutes after the plane took off.
Although the hijackers wanted to fly the plane to Tehran, pilots managed to land the plane at the Antalya Airport for refuelling.
Source: Xinhua
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