Body Found in Syria Believed Klinghoffer’s

Western diplomats said today that they believe the body of an elderly man that washed ashore near the Syrian port of Tartus is that of Leon Klinghoffer, but final identification has not yet been made.

Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old American passenger confined to a wheelchair, was reported killed and thrown overboard by four Palestinian gunmen who hijacked the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro last week. The killing was said to have occurred Oct. 8 when the ship was off Tartus.

Initial reports said the body apparently had been in the sea for several days. It was found Monday near Tartus, 70 miles northwest of Damascus, and was brought to the Syrian capital today.

U.S. Embassy spokesman John Burgess said progress was slow in identifying the body and “I honestly doubt whether they will reach any conclusion today.”

U.S. officials have said Klinghoffer was shot in the head before being thrown into the Mediterranean along with his wheelchair. Burgess said he did not know whether there are any bullet wounds in the corpse being examined.

Burgess said the Syrians are cooperating fully with U.S. officials and have agreed to turn over the body to the embassy if it is identified as that of Klinghoffer.

Judicial sources who insisted on anonymity said the hijackers, now in Italian custody facing murder and piracy charges, have denied that they killed anyone during the two-day takeover. The hijacking began Oct. 7 off Port Said, Egypt, and ended two days later when the gunmen surrendered to negotiators from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In Genoa, Italy, today magistrates issued arrest warrants against three more Arabs accused of complicity in the ship hijacking.

Gennaro Calabrese de Feo, chief state prosecutor in Genoa where the hijackers first boarded the ship, told reporters a warrant was issued for Kalef Mohamad Zainad, a Palestinian who arrived in Italy from Tunisia on Sept. 28 with two passports and is believed to have planned to board the Achille Lauro.

Warrants were also issued for the arrest of the man who bought tickets for the four hijackers who eventually seized the Achille Lauro and for a third man who got off the vessel when it reached Alexandria, Egypt, its last port of call before the hijacking.

De Feo would not release the names of the latter two or say whether they are in custody.

The four hijackers, forced to Sicily aboard an Egyptian airliner by U.S. warplanes last week, were transferred overnight from a jail in Syracuse to a top-security jail in Spoleto, north of Rome.