Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994 TAG: 9412270128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MARSEILLE, FRANCE LENGTH: Medium
None of the commandos or 170 hostages on the plane was killed, but one commando lost a hand during the 20-minute raid, which was broadcast live on French television.
It was the most dramatic episode yet in the 3-year-old struggle by Muslim extremists to topple Algeria's government, and a powerful reminder that France's close ties to its former colony can be deadly.
Gunmen commandeered the Airbus A300 at the Algiers airport on Christmas Eve. They killed three passengers over the weekend before flying to Marseille early Monday.
One of the hostages freed in the commando raid said the hijackers appeared to have been preparing for more deaths.
``They had already started putting a death ritual in place. They had said a few prayers, especially prayers for people preparing to die,'' said the Algerian woman, interviewed by Europe-1 radio.
``At the moment when the commandos attacked, they shouted, `We'll show the French what we're capable of doing!''' said the woman, whose name was not given.
Twenty-five people were injured - 13 passengers, three crew members and nine commandos, according to the Interior Ministry. Five people, all members of France's elite commando squad, were seriously hurt with gunshot wounds.
The hijackers apparently triggered the assault by opening fire on the control tower, shattering a window.
Live television broadcasts showed security forces storming the plane at 5:20 p.m. (11:20 a.m. EST). They approached on a stairway and opened the front right door, which apparently had been unlocked from the inside.
They burst in amid an exchange of gunfire. Two commandos, apparently shot and wounded, then limped out.
Television showed a man believed to be one of the pilots climbing out a cockpit window and falling to the ground. He got up, clutching one arm, and moved away.
A commando, dressed in black, stood on a stairway trying to throw some kind of device into the cockpit through a broken window. He missed, and the device exploded on the ground in front of the plane. He tossed another into the cockpit through the window, and it went off inside. Three more flashes lit up the inside of the cockpit.
Other commandos rushed up staircases along the right side of the plane, pointing weapons inside.
A few moments later, inflatable emergency slides were deployed on both sides of the plane. Passengers immediately started sliding down them and were whisked away with their hands up as more commandos rushed in from behind the plane.
Officials at the airport said that was done to conduct strict identity checks so that no additional hijackers would slip away.
The French news agency Agence France-Presse said it received a claim of responsibility Monday from the Armed Islamic Group's ``Phalange of the Signers in Blood.''
It said the action was a response to France's ``unconditional aid'' to the Algerian regime.
The 54-hour ordeal began when armed Islamic radicals commandeered the twin-aisle Airbus A300 at the Algiers airport on Christmas Eve before it left on a scheduled flight to Paris.
Demanding the release of jailed fundamentalist leaders, they executed three passengers - an Algerian policeman, a Vietnamese and an French staffer of France's embassy in Algiers - and dumped their bodies on the airport tarmac in Algiers.
The success of the risky mission was hailed in France as an important victory for the government in its fight against Islamic terrorism. Muslim extremists opposed to French support for the Algerian regime have slain more than 70 foreigners, including 23 French citizens, over the past year in an escalating civil war in the former French colony.
The dramatic raid also was sure to bolster the conservative prime minister, Edouard Balludur, the leading contender for the seat being vacated by retiring President Francois Mitterrand next May.
To move the plane to French soil, Balladur had pressured the Algerian government Sunday to meet a demand of the hijackers and allow the airliner to fly to France.
Balladur said he decided to storm the plane early Monday, hours before the raid began. ``It was apparent that the only solution to safeguard human lives was an assault,'' he said.
Sixty-five passengers had been freed in the course of the three-day drama.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB