A Fusillade During Prayers

In a pair of new skyjackings, terrorists lose one and win another

The red-and-white DC-9 belonging to Garuda Indonesian Airways sat in the cargo area at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport, harshly illuminated by spotlights. Inside, five fanatic Muslim hijackers knelt in the aisle in thankful prayer, convinced that a deal had been struck and that, as they had demanded, some 80 freed "political prisoners" were on their way from Indonesia. But even as they prayed, a 39-man team of Indonesian commandos were clambering up metal ladders onto the wings of the DC-9. At precisely 2:36 a.m. the plane's doors burst open and the commandos hurtled inside with machine guns blazing. Three of the kneeling terrorists were killed outright. The 44 frightened passengers first ducked behind their seats, then scrambled onto the wings and jumped to safety. A terrorist trying to escape among them was shot dead; another was captured. In nine minutes, the Indonesian military squad had put an end to a three-day hijacking. The toll: the Indonesians' commanding officer and the plane's pilot were critically wounded.

"When I tried to talk with them, they said, 'Keep your mouth shut, or we'll put a bullet through your head,' " Dutch Passenger Hendrik Seisen, 34, recalled later. The five skyjackers were identified as members of the Komando Jihad, or Holy War Command, a shadowy group of Muslim extremists dedicated to Iran-style Islamic revolution in Indonesia. Nervously brandishing machine guns, grenades and dynamite, they demanded $1.5 million in ransom and asylum for themselves and the 80 militants imprisoned by the government of Indonesian President Suharto.

At first the Indonesian government readily agreed to release the prisoners but insisted that tune would be needed to assemble them from scattered prisons and to find a third country willing to admit them. As the tense siege wore on, Karl Schneider, 44, a U.S. businessman working in Indonesia, tried to duplicate an earlier escape by a British passenger. The terrorists shot him in the back and dumped him on the tarmac.

The Indonesian commandos had flown to Bangkok two days prior to the attack. After initial reluctance the Thais agreed to deploy 50 army sharpshooters around the DC-9 to back up the Indonesian antiterrorist force. Other governments concurred in the no-deals approach. Said U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Morton Abramowitz, reflecting Washington's sentiment: "The only way to deal with terrorists is a firm refusal to give in to their demands."

If terrorists lost one in Bangkok, they won in another hijack drama in Managua, Nicaragua. A Honduran Sahsa Airlines Boeing 737 was commandeered at gunpoint by five hijackers demanding the release of 15 leftists imprisoned in Honduras. In a complicated deal, the Honduran government agreed to free the prisoners if the plane's 50 passengers and six crew members were released into the custody of Panamanian authorities, acting as intermediaries. The plane was flown to Panama, where the passengers were released, and three days later a Panamanian Air Force jet was dispatched to Honduras to pick up ten leftist prisoners. The released prisoners, along with the hijackers, were to be flown to an unspecified sanctuary.

Their probable destination: Cuba.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.