3 Germans kidnapped by Kurdish rebels

Gov. Mehmet Cetin of Turkey's eastern Agri province said the climbers, part of a 13-member German team, were abducted late Tuesday from their camp at 10,500 feet, the Dogan news agency reported.

In Germany, Bavaria's state interior minister said the three Bavarian men abducted--ages 33, 47 and 65--seemed to be picked at random by the kidnappers.

The 10 other Germans returned to the city of Agri, Cetin said.

The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party is banned in Germany, where authorities have arrested and tried suspected activists.

Cetin said the five Kurdish rebels who abducted the Germans apparently did so to protest Germany's crackdown on their supporters. Germany's ZDF television quoted Cetin as saying he believed the Germans would soon be set free.

The rebels, who have been fighting for autonomy in eastern Turkey since 1984, abducted and released other foreign tourists and climbers in early 1990s.

Mount Ararat, in far eastern Turkey near the Iranian border, is traditionally considered the site where Noah's biblical Ark landed after the great flood.