The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks (14 page)

Overview:
Sikh militants generally confined their operations to the region of conflict between India and Pakistan. Seeking revenge for the Indian army's storming of the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984 in which hundreds died, some Sikhs in Canada expanded their operations to conduct a high-profile airliner bombing campaign that presaged the al Qaeda simultaneous mass-casualty, multiple-target attack template.

Incident:
On June 23, 1985, Air India flight 182, en route from Toronto to Bombay with intermediate stops in Montreal, London, and New Delhi, disappeared from Shannon Airport radar at 31,000 feet altitude, 90 miles from the Irish coast. The B-747 carried 329 people, including 4 infants and 77 children. Passengers included 279 Canadians and 7 Americans; most of the rest were Indian. Four helicopters of the Royal Air Force searched for survivors and debris. Everyone had perished in the worst airplane crash over water and the third worst in aviation history.

An hour earlier, a bomb placed in a suitcase aboard Canadian Pacific Airlines flight 003, en route from Vancouver to Tokyo with 374 passengers and 16 crew, exploded after being unloaded at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. The suitcase was in a baggage container waiting to be loaded onto Air India flight 301 to Bombay. Baggage handlers Hideo Asano and Hideharu Koda were killed when the bomb prematurely exploded in the baggage area of Narita Airport; four other airport employees were injured. The baggage aboard the Canadian Pacific flight had not been given X-ray surveillance for explosives. Authorities at the Toronto airport confirmed that the surveillance equipment was malfunctioning on June 23, 1985, and that many pieces of luggage placed aboard flight 182 had not been screened for explosives.

In two anonymous phone calls to the
New York Times
, self-proclaimed spokesmen took credit for the Air India crash on behalf of two Sikh
separatist groups—the Sikh Student Federation and the Kashmir Liberation Front. In a call to the Canadian Broadcasting Company, a selfproclaimed spokesman claimed credit on behalf of a third extreme Sikh group.

India conducted the investigation into the crash. Experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada assisted. Evidence included 50 video films of the aircraft wreckage, the results of autopsies performed on the bodies, 4,000 photographs, the cockpit voice recorder, the digital flight data recorder, and recovered pieces of the wreckage. The overwhelming evidence pointed to a mid-air bomb blast:

• The wreckage was strewn over a 5-mile area.
  
• The autopsies revealed that many of the victims suffered injuries caused by a sudden deceleration.
  
• The two black boxes stopped functioning the moment that the plane left the radar screen.
  
• A large piece of the lower skin of the forward luggage hold, recovered by Canadian salvage teams on October 22, 1985, contained 30 holes, pierced from the inside.
  
• A second piece of wreckage had burn marks on it.
  
• The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder recovered on July 11, 1985, in 6,600 feet of ocean indicated that an explosion had occurred.
  

On November 21, 1985, India's director of air safety, H. S. Khola, issued a report that concluded that a bomb had caused the crash. On February 26, 1986, a judicial inquiry in New Delhi concluded that a suitcase planted by a terrorist caused the explosion. The 212-page report submitted to the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry indicated that a bomb had been placed aboard the ill-fated plane's forward luggage compartment in Toronto. The report accused two Sikh extremists—Lal Singh and Annand Singh—of having placed the bomb on board. The Singh brothers had booked tickets on flight 182. Even though they had checked luggage on the flight for Bombay, neither of them boarded the flight. The report also implicated the brothers in the explosion at the Tokyo Airport. On June 20, 1985, the brothers booked tickets on the Canadian Pacific Airlines flight 003 to Tokyo. In Tokyo, they were scheduled to transfer to Air India flight 301, the flight for which the suitcase bomb had been intended. At Vancouver, a man named A. Singh checked in one or more bags for flight 003, which were to be transferred to Air India flight 301 in Tokyo. Neither L. Singh nor A. Singh boarded flight 003.

The Singh brothers had attended a mercenary training camp in Birmingham, Alabama, in the early part of 1985. They had told the camp director, Frank Camper, that they were preparing an “offensive” that summer. In the training camp, they were taught the use of weapons and explosives. Investigators believed that a time bomb had been used in each
incident. The bomb at the Tokyo Airport had exploded prematurely, causing the death of the two baggage handlers.

Lal Singh and Annand Singh were also wanted for a plot to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi during his scheduled visit in June 1985. As of November 1988, the Singh brothers were at large.

Prosecutors said Sikh militants built the bomb in British Columbia.

On June 10, 1991, Justice Raymond Paris of Canada's British Columbia Supreme Court sentenced to 10 years in prison Inderjit Singh Reyat, 39, a Canadian Sikh who was convicted on May 10, 1991, on two counts of manslaughter and four explosives offenses for making a bomb that exploded at the Tokyo airport. Justice Paris said that the former auto electrician at the very least helped others build a suitcase bomb that was to have been used to blow up an Indian airliner. Reyat was the only person charged with the blast. He was a devout Sikh who aided members of the militant Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh nationalist organization. On February 10, 2003, Reyat pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Air India 182 case. He was sentenced to five years for helping acquire the materials used to make the bomb. Prosecutors said he did not know who made the bomb and thought the material would be used for bombs in India. The surprise plea came less than two months before he and two other men were to stand trial on murder charges in the case.

On October 27, 2000, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in Vancouver arrested Ripudaman Singh Malik, a millionaire who ran a Vancouver radio station, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, a sawmill worker from Kamloops, British Columbia. They faced eight charges, including first-degree murder, conspiracy, and attempted murder in the killing of the 329 people on the Air India flight 182 bombing. They were also charged with the attempted murder of the passengers and crew in the Tokyo explosion. On April 28, 2003, their trial began. On March 16, 2005, British Columbia Supreme Court justice Ian Josephson acquitted Malik and Bagri of murder and other charges in the Air India 182 case and of the bombing in Tokyo. The judge said key witnesses were not credible.

Overview:
A dizzying blizzard of Palestinian terrorist groups jockeyed for position in the 1970s and 1980s to gain leadership of the Palestinian struggle against Israel and its allies. Groups conducted campaigns of bombings, assassinations, hijackings, and barricade-and-hostage operations against primarily European targets throughout Europe and the Middle East. The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) garnered extensive publicity with its shipjacking and brutal murder of a wheelchair-bound American, whose body they threw off the ship. Post-incident handling
of the case strained U.S.–Egyptian relations and led to the resignation of the Italian government. The search for the Abu Abbas–led group took years, but eventually the perpetrators were rendered to justice.

Incident:
On October 3, 1985, the Italian cruise ship
Achille Lauro
set sail from Genoa, Italy, carrying 754 passengers and 331 crew. As scheduled, the ship made calls at Naples and Syracuse. When it docked in Alexandria, 634 passengers disembarked for an overland trip to the Pyramids with plans to reboard the ship at Port Said. Thirty miles from the next port-of-call, on October 7, 1985, four terrorists armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, eight grenades, and other weapons seized the ship. The takeover took place at 1:00 p .m. when the terrorists fired warning shots in the main dining room. Two hostages were slightly injured by gunfire during the initial takeover. The hijackers held 331 crew and 116 passengers hostage, including 12 Americans. The terrorists collected the passengers' passports and grouped people according to nationalities. The Americans were ordered onto the top deck, where for four grueling hours of heat, they were not given water. Hostages included people from West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, and the Netherlands. The hijackers ordered Capt. Gerardo de Rosa to head to Syria. On the morning of October 8, 1985, the ship was off the coast of Tartus, Syria. By radio, the hijackers, who identified themselves as members of the PLF, requested permission to dock. Syria denied the request. The hijackers demanded the release of 50 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel. At 2:42 p .m ., one hijacker radioed Syrian authorities, saying “We have no more time. We will start executing at 3:00 p.m. sharp.” At 2:55 p .m., they warned, “We have five minutes only.” The hijackers singled out Leon Klinghoffer, 69, an American confined to a wheelchair. Klinghoffer was shot in the head and chest. The hijackers then ordered two of the hostages to dump Klinghoffer in his wheelchair overboard.

Israel responded to the hijackers' demands by reiterating its policy of not conceding to terrorists. The United States announced that the USS
Saratoga
, an aircraft carrier, and the USS
Scott
, a guided-missile destroyer, were steaming to the vicinity of the
Achille Lauro
. The Delta Force was also dispatched to the region.

Israel believed that the four hijackers—Bassam Ashqar, 17; Majid Yusuf al-Mulki, 23; Mar'uf Ahmad al-As'adi, 23; and ‘Abdal-Latif Ibrahim Fatayer, 20—had been sent by Mohammad Abbas Zaidan (Abu Khalid) on a suicide mission to Ashdod, Israel. In an interview with CBS Radio after the incident ended, Abbas confirmed that the terrorists were, indeed, en route to a suicide mission inside Israel when the boat hijacking occurred.

When Syria refused their request to dock, the hijackers ordered the captain to head back toward Port Said. On October 9, 1985, the ship was 12 miles off the coast of Port Said. During the early afternoon, the terrorists communicated with Egyptian officials by ship-to-shore radio. Egyptian
defense minister Mohammad Abu Ghazala headed the negotiations. Two Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representatives—Hani Hassan and Zahdi Qoudra—in Cairo assisted with the negotiations. The PLF interests were represented in Cairo by Abbas. At 4:20
P.M.
, the negotiators agreed in principle on a deal with the hijackers, where by the hostages would be freed in exchange for safe passage to Tunis for the hijackers. The incident ended at 5:00
P.M
. when Abbas and Egyptian authorities took a small boat to the ship and boarded it.

The United States immediately requested that Egypt turn the hijackers over to them to face trial.

On the morning of October 10, 1985, Egyptian president Mubarak announced that the hijackers had already departed Egypt.

The
Washington Post
reported that U.S. intelligence sources used electronic eavesdropping devices to establish that the terrorists were still in Egypt. At 7:00 p.m., the USS
Saratoga
, off the coast of Albania, turned around, and seven F-14 fighter jets took off, supported by E2C Hawkeye electronic surveillance planes. At 9:15
P.M
., a chartered Egyptair B-737 left Cairo with Abbas, Hani Hasan, and the four hijackers. The surveillance planes intercepted the B-737, which had been refused permission to land in Tunis and Athens. The F-14s flashed their lights to convince the Egyptair pilot that he was surrounded. The F-14s ordered the B-737 to follow them to Sigonella, a U.S.–Italian air base in Sicily. U.S. commandos, Italian soldiers, and police took the four hijackers and two Palestinian officials into custody. Seventeen Egyptian passengers were also on the plane.

The four hijackers were arrested by Italian authorities, but the two Palestinian officials were only detained for questioning. On October 12, 1985, Abbas and Hasan boarded the Egyptair B-737 and took off from Ciampino Airport to Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome. At 7:10
P.M
., the two boarded a Yugoslav JAT Airways jet for Belgrade and freedom. The United States protested the escape of Abbas, whom the United States wanted to charge with sea piracy. At the time of his release, the United States was preparing papers asking Italy to extradite Abbas and the four hijackers. U.S. attorney general Edwin Meese characterized Abbas as “an international criminal” and vowed that the United States would do everything possible to bring Abbas to justice.

A fifth Palestinian—Muhammad Isa Abbas, 25—was charged on October 14, 1985, with complicity in the hijacking. Abbas, a cousin of the Abbas who masterminded the operation, was arrested as he disembarked from a ship from Tunis on September 28, 1985, five days before the departure of the
Achille Lauro
. A sixth Palestinian, who departed the
Achille Lauro
in Alexandria, was also being sought.

On October 16, 1985, the Israeli government released a partial transcript of a ship-to-shore telephone conversation between the hijackers and Abbas. The transcript clearly indicated that Abbas had been in control of the terrorists during the hijacking.

On October 17, 1985, Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi announced the resignation of his cabinet in the wake of the government's handling of Abbas.

On October 23, 1985, hijacker Mur'uf Ahmad al-As'adi turned state's evidence. As'adi identified Abbas as having masterminded their mission. Majid Yusuf al-Molqi was identified as the head of the terrorist squad and as the one who murdered Klinghoffer.

On October 26, 1985, Italian authorities revealed that a sixth suspect— Yusef Ali Yuseb Ismail—had been arrested.