Shias Salute Hijackers With Rally at Airport

Hundreds of Shia Muslims chanting “Death to America” and hailing the hijackers of a TWA jetliner as “heroes of Islam” demonstrated at the Beirut airport today but were kept away from the hijacked plane by militiamen.

The demonstration came as Shia Muslim militia leaders today considered releasing two of the 40 American hostages and letting them fly out of Lebanon for medical treatment, informed sources reported.

An airport official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Shia Amal militia was “examining the condition” of Jimmy Dell Palmer, 48, of Little Rock, Ark., to decide whether he should be freed.

An Amal official, who also refused to be identified, said Palmer was recently taken to an unidentified clinic in Beirut to be treated either for a heart condition or lung illness.

The militia official said Claude Whitmoyer, in his late 30s, of Severn, Md., may also be released for health reasons. But the militiaman said he did not know the nature of Whitmoyer’s illness.

40 Held Since Hijacking

Palmer and Whitmoyer are among the 40 hostages who have been held since the Trans World Airlines Boeing 727 was hijacked a week ago on an Athens-to-Rome flight.

The three-man crew is aboard the TWA plane, guarded around the clock by Shia Muslims. Thirty-seven other hostages are being held in scattered positions in Beirut, the Amal leaders said.

The hijackers killed one person, U.S. Navy Petty officer Robert Dean Stethem of Waldorf, Md., who was buried Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery (Story, Page 31). The rest of the passengers and crew were released.

After Muslim militants called for a show of support for the hijackers, who are demanding that Israel release Arab prisoners, up to 1,000 bearded men and women clad in black garments marched onto the tarmac today, only 600 yards from where the hijacked Boeing 727 has been parked since Sunday. They waved banners with slogans written in Arabic and English.

“America is the mother of terrorism,” read one. “America is the biggest Satan,” read another.

Expression of Anger

Beating their chests with clutched fists in the traditional Muslim expression of anger, they chanted: “Death to America, Death to (President) Reagan,” and “Down with Israel, Down with France, Down with Britain.”

Nervous Shia gunmen quickly ringed the TWA plane and pointed their AK-47 rifles at the mob to keep them from getting closer to it. The crowd left the airport two hours later after lengthy arguments with the militiamen.

The hijackers and Nabih Berri, chief of the Shia Muslims’ Amal militia, say the captives will not be freed until Israel releases 764 Lebanese Shia Muslims jailed without charges in Atlit prison near the Israeli port of Haifa.

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres telephoned Secretary of State George P. Shultz and expressed support for the American refusal to bend to terrorist demands, the Israeli Embassy said.

Israel has said it will consider freeing the Shia prisoners in exchange for the hostages only if requested to do so by Washington.