The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks

by Edward Mickolus

  On its way, the plane was refused permission on October 14, 1977, to land in Beirut, Damascus, Kuwait, and Iraq. Bahrain and Dubai, which were next on their itinerary, tried to prevent the plane’s landing. Vietnam, Somalia, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, named by the hijackers as candidates to receive the released prisoners, indicated their unwillingness.

  The hijackers hoped to increase the pressure by their treatment of the hostages and establish an image of being willing to kill. They consistently refused requests to release sick, young, or female passengers. The leader of the hijackers called out the names of those he believed were Jewish and said they would be killed in the morning. The female hijacker took delight in brushing grenades against the heads of the passengers while the terrorist leader ranted against imperialism and Zionism. Pressure mounted when the hijackers fired three shots at Dubai engineers approaching the aircraft to attach a mobile generator because the plane’s lighting system had failed.

  The plane now headed for Oman, but the Sultan refused permission to land. They went on to Aden, but Yemen attempted to prevent the landing as well. Pilot Juergen Schumann left the aircraft to inspect damage to the landing gear and wandered into an area cordoned off by security forces. He attempted to convince the authorities not to allow the damaged plane to take off again. When he got back to the cabin, he was forced to kneel in the aisle while a one-question trial was held on whether he tried to escape. The leaders of the hijackers fired a bullet through his head in front of the passengers.

  The terrorists forced the copilot to head the plane for Somalia. When the plane landed at Mogadishu, the pilot’s body was dumped onto the runway. The hijackers tied up the hostages, poured alcohol from passengers’ gift-shop liquor over them and in the cabin for eventual burning, and collected passports to throw out so that passengers could be identified after the planned explosion.

  International recoil at this action grew to recognition of the need for immediate, forceful response. The team members of Grenzchutzgruppe Neun (GSG 9) set off before the Somali government gave permission for the rescue.

  The GSG 9 team moved on the plane at 2:00 A.M. on October 18, 1977. Approaching from the rear, the commandos set up four stepladders. They ignited an oil drum and rolled it toward the nose of the plane and away from the craft. The hijackers were drawn to the cockpit for a better look, allowing the commandos to open the plane’s doors simultaneously. The raiders threw in specially designed British flash-bang grenades. Rushing in, the commandos yelled, “Get down!” Two terrorists were killed in the cockpit. A third in the first-class compartment opened fire. Although hit by two bullets, he hurled a grenade toward the rear of the plane. Hit by more bullets, he detonated another grenade while falling, injuring several hostages. The fourth terrorist, a woman, opened fire through the door of the lavatory in the rear of the plane. She was quickly subdued. Six minutes after the beginning of the operation, the passengers were safely out of the plane. One commando and four passengers were slightly injured.

  The euphoria of the Germans was tempered by the embarrassment to the government over the prison suicides of Baader-Meinhof members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Gudrun Ensslin, and the attempted suicide of Irmgard Moeller.

  On October 27, 1977, the PFLP-Special Operations claimed credit, saying that the hijack leader was Zuhair Akkasha, whose fingerprints matched those of the killer of North Yemen’s former prime minister, Al Jehri, on April 10, 1977. The two other dead hijackers were identified as Nadia Shehade Doebis and Nabi Ibrahim Harb. Many suggested that the hijackers were members of an Iraqi-based group PFLP wing headed by Wadi Haddad.

  In the wake of Japan’s embarrassment over caving in to hijackers during a September 28, 1977, incident in India and Germany’s jubilation over its success, many other nations felt pressed to establish similar commando rescue squads.

  On March 20, 1993, Monika Haas was arrested for involvement in the Landshut hijacking. A warrant was issued for hostage-taking, kidnapping for the purpose of blackmail, and disrupting air traffic. She had been under investigation since March 4, 1993. She had written a book entitled The Red Army Faction–Stasi Connection. Haas was tried in 1996 for providing the weapons. She was sentenced in 1998 to five years in prison. A federal court dismissed her 2000 appeal.

  On October 31, 1994, Der Spiegel reported that Palestinian Soraya Ansari, 41, was arrested in Norway and provided investigators with details of the Landshut hijacking of which she was the sole survivor. She stated that she knew Haas, who lived in Frankfurt, Germany. She said that Haas was the former wife of a Palestinian leader. Germany’s request for Ansari’s extradition was rejected by a lower court judge on December 9, 1994, citing humanitarian considerations. The decision was reversed a week later by an intermediate level court. She was freed just before Christmas.

  As of January 6, 1995, Ansari, alias Souhaila Sami Andrawes, was fighting extradition. She admitted her role in the hijacking. A Somali court convicted her of air piracy and terrorism and sentenced her to 20 years. She was placed on a cargo plane to Baghdad and freedom in 1978. Beirut-born Ansari had been on Interpol’s wanted list since the early 1980s. Norwegian authorities said they did not know of her past when she, her husband Ahmed Abu-Matar, and daughter received residency permits after arriving from Cyprus in 1991.

  Ansari claimed that Germany could not try her because of double jeopardy; she had already served time in Somali jails for the same crime. German officials said that a new German trial would be lawful because Somalia is not a signatory to international judicial conventions and that a year in jail fell far short of justice.

  On November 19, 1996, Hamburg’s State Supreme Court convicted Suhaila Sayeh, a Palestinian woman, of murder and other crimes and sentenced her to 12 years in prison for her role in the Landshut hijacking. She was one of the four hijackers, but claimed she had no role in killing the plane’s pilot. The court ruled that she had been complicit. Sayeh was the only hijacker to survive the German GSG 9 rescue operation in Somalia that freed 87 hostages. She was arrested in 1994 in Oslo, Norway, and extradited to Germany.

  March 16, 1978

  Aldo Moro Kidnapping

  Overview: Leftist terrorists plagued Italy during the 1970s, conducting thousands of attacks during that period. Although the Italian Left was badly splintered, the main terrorist worry for the government was the Red Brigades, whose tentacles spread to various other European leftist and Palestinian revolutionaries. The Red Brigades conducted numerous bombings, assassinations, and bank heists during its long history. Its major claim to infamy came with the kidnapping, two-month hostage negotiation, and murder of former Italian premier Aldo Moro. An embarrassed government conducted a massive manhunt for the killers and dismantled the Red Brigades along the way.

  Incident: On March 16, 1978, a dozen members of the Red Brigades killed five bodyguards while kidnapping Aldo Moro. The Rome abduction took place at 8:15 A.M. when Moro’s sedan, accompanied by a police car, was ambushed as he was on his way to meet with Christian Democratic Premier Guilio Andreotti, who was going to request a vote of confidence for the first communist-supported government in 31 years. Moro, 61, president of the ruling Christian Democrats, was cut off by two stolen cars from which three to five terrorists jumped out and fired machine guns. The two policemen in Moro’s car died immediately and two of the three in the following car died later. The fifth bodyguard died after undergoing surgery. Police found 710 bullets at the scene; some came from a rarely seen Soviet-made weapon and a Czechoslovakian pistol. The escape vehicle was later found with stolen diplomatic plates.

  The kidnappers demanded the release of jailed comrades and a suspension of the Turin trial of 15 Red Brigades leaders, including founder Renato Curcio. They also called for the release of Armed Proletarian Nuclei (Nuclei Armati Proletari) members. On March 18, 1978, the group announced a “people’s trial” of Moro, who was photographed in front of a Red Brigades flag. Because the government refused to negotiate, the Moro family
requested Caritas International, a Roman Catholic relief organization, to act as an intermediary. In one of their nine communiqués, the Red Brigades said they would deal only with the government. On April 15, 1978, the group announced that Moro had been sentenced to death. Three days later, a message claimed that Moro’s body could be found in Duchess Lake, a mountain lake 100 miles northeast of Rome. Police, soldiers, firemen, and skin divers found nothing after a three-day search. On March 20, 1978, a newspaper received a photo of Moro in apparently good health, holding the previous day’s newspaper. On April 22, 1978, the government allowed a 9:00 A.M. deadline to pass without granting the terrorists’ demands. Two days later, a new terrorist ultimatum called for the release of 13 terrorists. On April 24, 1978, Luis Carlos Zarak, Panama’s ambassador, said that his president had offered asylum to the prisoners in return for Moro’s safe release.

  On May 9, 1978, Moro’s bullet-riddled body was found in the trunk of a car parked in downtown Rome. The burgundy Renault R-4 was parked on a small street around the corner from the headquarters of both the Christian Democrats and Communists. Moro’s hands and feet were chained, and at least 10 bullets were found in his chest and head. The car was found after police intercepted an anonymous call to one of Moro’s secretaries at 1:00 P.M.

  On May 18 and 19, 1978, police discovered three Red Brigades hideouts. One of them was believed to be the printing headquarters of the kidnappers. On September 14, 1978, police in Milan arrested Corrado Alunni, reputedly the new Red Brigades leader, in connection with the kidnapping and murder. By then, 17 people had been charged, although 11 suspects were still at large. The next day, Marina Zoni, 31, was arrested. On October 3, 1978, Lauro Azzolini, 35, and Antonio Savino, 27, were arrested in a gun battle with police, in which Savino and two police were injured. On April 16, 1979, Italian judiciary officials released new evidence implicating 12 people in the case. Several of them had been imprisoned for the previous nine days. Among them were educators, journalists, professors sympathetic to leftists, and Antonio Negri, professor of political science at Padua University. Ultraleftist Professor Franco Piperno, 36, was arrested in Paris on August 18, 1979, and charged with murder. On September 14, 1979, after giving a press conference denying involvement in the case, Lanfranco Pace, 32, was arrested by Paris police in a hotel. On September 24, 1979, after a gun battle with Rome police, Prospero Gallinari, 28, believed to have driven the car with diplomatic plates that blocked Moro’s car, was arrested, along with Mara Nanni. Gallinari was hit twice in the legs, twice in the lower abdomen, and once in the left temple.

  On January 3, 1980, Rome’s public prosecutor asked for trials for several individuals arrested in the Moro case. Alunni, Gallinari, Franco Bonisoli, Azzolini, Teodoro Spadaccini, and Giovanni Lugnini were charged with the kidnapping and killing of Moro and with the slaying of his five-man escort. Adriana Faranda, Valerio Morucci, Mario Moretti, Enrico Triaca, Gabriella Mariani, Antonio Marini, and Barbara Balzerani were accused of crimes connected to the ambush. Toni Negri was believed to have phoned Moro’s wife on April 30, 1978, to announce that Moro would be killed. An eyewitness claimed that Negri was at the scene of the ambush and that a woman congratulated him on the attack. Three Red Brigades members were sentenced to life in 1983.

  On June 8, 1988, in Lugano, Switzerland, police arrested Alvaro Lojacono, 33, who had been convicted of terrorism in Italy and was believed involved in the Moro kidnapping and murder along with Alessio Casimirri, who remained at large. He was tried in 1975 and initially acquitted of murdering a young rightist extremist, but subsequently was found guilty of the charge by a higher court in 1980. He was sentenced to 16 years. He had vanished by the time of his second trial.

  On October 9, 1990, construction workers found 421 photocopies of handwritten and typed letters written and signed by Moro hidden inside a window sill. They also found a machine gun, a pistol, and 60 million lire ($50,000) in a Milan apartment previously used by the terrorists as a hideout. Carabinieri had discovered the Milan hideout at 8 Via Montenevoso on October 1, 1978, and arrested nine Red Brigades members. More than 30 letters written by Moro were delivered to his family and leading Italian politicians during the 55-day kidnapping. The money was part of the ransom paid to the Red Brigades for the January 12, 1977, kidnapping of industrialist Pietro Costa.

  On November 5, 1995, former prime minister Giulio Andreotti, 76, was indicted in Perugia on charges of complicity in the 1979 murder of journalist Mino Pecorelli. The charge said that he and former trade minister Claudio Vitalone conspired with the Mafia to kill the journalist because they feared he would publish damaging revelations concerning the kidnapping and murder of Moro.

  On July 16, 1996, an Italian court sentenced to life Germano Maccari for the kidnapping and murder of Moro. Maccari was convicted of shooting Moro. In 1993, another Brigades member convicted as an accomplice led police to arrest Maccari as the fourth kidnapper.

  Twenty years after the kidnapping, the newspaper Corriere della Sera hosted a roundtable on the topic that included the former terrorists. Triggerman Moretti said that Moro would have been spared if the government had given “just a signal, the recognition of the existence of political prisoners.” However, former Red Brigadist Anna Braghetti said that the 200 members of the gang were polled and could not justify keeping him alive because the government had refused to compromise.

  August 27, 1979

  Mountbatten Assassination

  Overview: Tens of thousands of attacks were attributed to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its various splinters, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), and various Unionist forces during the decades of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Most of the attacks were low-level bombings and shootings, and involved attacks against suspected civilian supporters of the government, Protestants, or Catholics (depending upon the group). The Provisional IRA did not limit its operations to small-scale attacks, however, on occasion targeting the senior most level of the British government, and in this instance, the royal family. The successful assassination of Earl Louis Mountbatten caused widespread consternation within the United Kingdom, with the man on the street fearful of his own safety if that of the royals could not be guaranteed. Police and paramilitary operations against the IRA and its adherents increased dramatically in the aftermath of the attack. While as of this writing most of the IRA adherents are dead, in jail, retired, or have given up the fray, on occasion diehards claim a bombing.

  Incident: On August 27, 1979, Earl Louis Mountbatten of Burma, 79, second cousin of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, was killed shortly after noon when a bomb exploded on his 29-foot Shadow V, a green and white fishing boat that had just pulled out of Mullaghmore, Ireland, a fishing village in County Sligo near the border. Lord Mountbatten died instantly when 50 pounds of explosives went off. His grandson, Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, and his friend, Paul Maxwell, 15, also died. The dowager Lady Brabourne, 82, mother-in-law of Lord Mountbatten’s daughter, Lady Patricia Brabourne, died of her injuries the next day. Lady Patricia was seriously injured. Her husband, film and television director Lord Brabourne ( John Ulick Knatchbull), and son Timothy, Nicholas’s twin, were reported in satisfactory condition at a nearby hospital. The INLA and the IRA claimed credit, the latter saying that the execution was part of a “noble struggle to drive the British intruders out of our native land.”

  Two patrolmen in a separate car had accompanied the Earl on the halfmile drive from his home to the mooring, a standard procedure for them. However, they did not regularly inspect his boat or accompany him on it. The local police superintendent told the news media, “It was at his own request that he was not guarded constantly.” Police officials speculated that the bomb may have been planted in his boat, which was left at an unguarded mooring a few yards from a stone jetty, and then set off either by remote control from the nearby hills or by a timing device. The bomb may have been placed in one of the Earl’s lobster traps, which then exploded when pulled out of the water. Two skin divers had b
een reported in the area. Witnesses disagreed as to the speed of the boat and whether the trap was being pulled up at the time of the explosion. This was to have been the last weekend of a three-week trip to Classiebawn Castle where Lord Mountbatten spent part of the summer for the previous three decades.

  The Irish Republic offered a £100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators, while the Ulster Defense Association threatened to “take the law into its own hands” if IRA violence was not stopped. A few hours before the bomb went off at 9:30 A.M., an Irish police patrol had arrested two individuals who were suspected of being involved. Thomas McMahon, 31, an upholsterer, and Francis McGirl, 24, a farmer, were stopped in their car 80 miles away from Mullaghmore near the town of Granard, County Leitrim, in a routine police inspection. They seemed unusually nervous, and McGirl used a fictitious name and address. Police records indicated that McMahon was an IRA expert in bomb mechanisms and McGirl came from a family of IRA activists. Both had Eire addresses. They were held on charges of IRA membership, but were later released on a technicality. They were immediately rearrested and taken to Dublin’s special no-jury criminal court, where they were charged with murder. Traces of nitroglycerin and seawater were found in their clothing. On November 23, 1979, a Dublin court found McMahon guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. The presiding judge refused to allow an appeal. McGirl was found innocent of the slaying, but was charged to stand trial on January 21, 1980, on charges of belonging to the outlawed IRA. Irish police believed seven other men were involved in the murder.