ANKARA
A captain who was onboard the Turkish cargo ship attacked off the Libyan coast on Sunday has said the only warning they received from the authorities was “with bombs.”
Zafer Kalayci, second captain of the "Tuna-1", told reporters in Turkey on Tuesday that the vessel came under fire with no warning.
Kalayci had been giving testimony to police in Fethiye, in Turkey’s southwestern Mugla province.
“In no way did they warn us,” he told journalists, adding: “What they may mean by a warning was probably a bomb,” he said.
“They warned us with bombs,” he added.
A third captain of the Tuna-1, Ilker Buyukdere, was killed on Sunday, and three crew members wounded, as the Turkish cargo ship, sailing under the colors of the Cook Islands, was attacked about 20 kilometers off the coast of Tobruk.
The ship docked on Tuesday near Sovalye Island, near Fethiye, in order for prosecutors to examine it.
On Monday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Tuna-1 had been attacked in international waters.
Three wounded crewmembers of the ship, one Turkish citizen and two Georgian nationals, gave evidence after a check-up at Fethiye hospital.
Kalayci said that at the time of the first attack they were about 12-13 miles off the Libyan coast. He said that a second plane attacked about an hour later, when the ship was sailing about 18 miles off the coast.
An Anadolu Agency correspondent said that the first captain of the ship, Unal Bilici, is to give testimony at the Fethiye Courthouse on Wednesday.
A strong team of 11 explosives and criminal experts form Ankara is expected to arrive on Wednesday in Fethiye to examine the ship.
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