Journalists are acutely aware of one characteristic of the terrorist of the '70s: however small his numbers or narrow his cause, he commands attention. Our Bonn bureau, which provided much of the reporting for this week's cover stories on the international terrorism phenomenon, is a case in point.

Over the past seven months alone, Bureau Chief William Mader and Correspondent Barrett Seaman have reported nine stories involving West Germany's continuing struggle with radical violence, including the kidnaping of the since murdered industrial leader, Hanns-Martin Schleyer. Following the Schleyer abduction, terrorism became what Mader describes as a "prime preoccupation" of the bureau as it prepared to cover further developments that were sure to come--and did, with great drama, last week. Says Mader: "Tragically, the likelihood is that we will face more such stories."

Part of our account of the safe rescue of the passengers and crew members being held hostage aboard Lufthansa's hijacked Flight 181 at Mogadishu, the Somali capital, came from an unexpected source: Israel. Jerusalem Correspondent David Halevy obtained from an Israeli short-wave radio enthusiast a tape recording of fragments of the communications he had monitored. They were between Flight 181, two other planes carrying the West German negotiator and anti-terrorist commandos, Lufthansa headquarters and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's crisis group, which was directing the operation.

Photographers Catherine Leroy and Henri Bureau happened to be in Mogadishu on assignment for TIME when the hijacked plane arrived there from Southern Yemen early Monday morning. That day, they photographed the grim scene at the airport as the body of the slain pilot was removed from the plane. They then decided to wait around at the field, on a hunch that Flight 181's four-day odyssey was about to reach a climax. Reports Leroy: "We knew something was coming up at 1:30 a.m. when the Somali police pushed us to a corner of the airport right behind the first-aid center. Later, it happened: gunfire echoed through the darkness for several minutes -- they seemed like hours -- then silence."

She and Bureau began taking their pictures the moment the people who had been aboard the plane reached the airport operations building. Says Leroy: "I lived at that airport for 24 hours. The rescue was one of the most emotional events I have ever covered."

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