Cruise Ship Hijackers Claim They Killed Two Americans : Threaten to Murder Others if Israel Doesn’t Free 50

Palestinian hijackers holding more than 400 people under their guns on an Italian cruise ship today claimed they killed two Americans and would kill more passengers unless Israel frees 50 prisoners.

Estimates of the number of Americans aboard the Achille Lauro ranged from a dozen to 28. Most Americans who had been on the ill-fated cruise were among about 600 passengers who got off the ship Monday in Alexandria, Egypt, for a land tour before the Palestinians seized it about 30 miles west of Port Said.

Western diplomats in Damascus said the Syrian Foreign Ministry told Italian Charge d’Affaires Pietro Cordone the hijackers claimed to have killed two Americans. “We have no confirmation,” said one diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The ship was off the Syrian coast today, but Syria denied it permission to enter its territorial waters and at nightfall the Achille Lauro began sailing west. Its destination was not known, but sources said Cypriot authorities would deny it permission to dock at Cyprus.

One hour later, one of the hijackers contacted Beirut port officials by radio and said they wanted to negotiate with Israel.

Italy Refuses Contact

The hijacker said: “This is Omar, the hijacker of the Italian ship. . . . I want to negotiate with Israel. I want you to convey this message. We will hit any ship, any plane that tries to approach us.”

Italian Charge d’Affaires Cordone said Italy had refused all contact with the hijackers. “We’re aligning ourselves with the American position--that is not to negotiate with terrorists,” he told reporters.

Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in Jerusalem that no government had asked Israel to free prisoners. He did not say what the answer to such a request would be, but Israel customarily refuses terrorist demands.

“We did not get any demands. We do not have to answer,” he said.

In Washington, President Reagan called the hijacking “the most ridiculous thing,” and the White House said the United States was working with other governments “to bring about an end to this act of terrorism.”

Explosives Claimed

The Palestinians were said to have a large supply of explosives, and had said soon after seizing the ship that they would blow it up if military air or naval forces tried to interfere.

Israeli officials said they were told by the Italians that the pirates boarded at Genoa, the cruise’s point of origin. But Spanish radio monitors said they joined the ship at various ports.

A maritime radio pickup by San Sebastian radio in Spain said there were 12 pirates, according to spokeswoman Trudy Hill. Hill said she monitored a conversation between the captain of an Italian ship and a warship from a nation she refused to name, which she said indicated a 40-year-old American was killed.

Hill also said radio conversations from the Achille Lauro indicated that the Palestinian captors came aboard at various ports, pretending to be Dutch tourists.

Guerrillas Young

“There are 12 guerrillas on board, all of them young except for the leader of the group,” she said.

She said the leader, who indicated he belongs to a Greek shipping firm, said he had taken two cruises on the Achille Lauro before the hijacking. “He was very interested in different aspects of this boat, such as the construction, and even asked the captain for plans and photographs of the inside of the boat, as well as technical data,” she said.

The radio account reported that Capt. Gerardo de Rosa had given the group leader photographs and plans of the interior of the Achille Lauro.

The ship carried 753 passengers when it left Italy last Thursday, but fewer than 100 were still aboard with more than 300 crew members when the Palestinians seized it. Most had disembarked at Alexandria for a land tour and were to have met the ship at Port Said, northern entrance to the Suez Canal.

Broke Away From PLO

The pirates said they were from the Palestine Liberation Front, a breakaway group from Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization.

In Tunis, Tunisia, the PLO “vigorously condemned and denounced” the hijacking, and demanded that the hostages be freed.

Lebanon’s Christian radio Voice of Lebanon said that besides the demand for 50 prisoners in Israel, the pirates also demanded that an unspecified number of Palestinians be freed from Italian jails.

A Palestinian terror squad leader named Samir Konaiterry headed the list of prisoners whose freedom the pirates demanded, Israeli officials reported.

The Israelis said he was captured after a 1979 raid on the Israeli coast in which two Israeli hostages, a man and his 5-year-old daughter, were brutally murdered.

Syria Approached

Syrian officials in Damascus said the Achille Lauro had at one point been 12 miles off the Syrian coast, in radio contact with officials in the port of Tartus, 90 miles northwest of Damascus.

The Voice of Lebanon said a vessel carrying PLO representatives had approached the ship off Tartus.

Various sources reported that those aboard the Achille Lauro included possibly six or seven British women among the predominantly Italian crew, two Israelis, perhaps four French citizens and about 50 West Germans and Swiss. Most of the Americans aboard were members of a tour group organized in New Jersey.

U.S. Navy spokeswoman Patricia Hooks said in Italy that the U.S. 6th Fleet flagship Coronado left its base in Gaeta, north of Naples, on Tuesday. The guided missile cruiser Scott, which docked in Haifa, Israel, on schedule today, was reported to have left port.

In Washington, Cmdr. Kendell Pease said the United States has ships in the eastern Mediterranean, but he did not know if any were near the Achille Lauro. Italy’s state-run radio said Italian warships and reconnaissance planes were dispatched, but there was no official confirmation. The Defense Ministry placed the military on alert.