Terrorists Strike Back, Kill 3 Britons, Try to Bomb Plane : Protesters Surround Embassies

Terrorists struck back against the United States and its friends on three continents today in an explosion of vengeful fury apparently ignited by the American bombing of Libya.

Terrorists “executed” three British kidnap victims in Lebanon, tried to blow up an El Al jetliner in London and tossed a firebomb at U.S. Marine quarters in Tunisia.

In city after city around the world, angry crowds swirled around U.S. embassies and screamed their hatred for “U.S.A. Aggressor.”

Bomb-disposal squads scurried around European capitals in response to threats. American Embassy staff members were being airlifted out of Sudan. In Libya itself, nervous Westerners looked desperately for ways out of the country.

Soviet Action

And in Moscow, in a possibly ominous development, the Soviet Union summoned foreign ambassadors and formally asserted its right to free passage through the seas and air around Soviet-aligned Libya, a move that might signal Kremlin intentions to move naval vessels or other military equipment into the tense Mediterranean. (Details on Page 2.)

The Reagan Administration said it was braced for further shocks. “We are prepared for an increase in terrorism,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said in Washington.

But he said the U.S. leadership believes its bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya, on Monday will “in the long run . . . reduce the risk to Americans” from terror attacks.

In Lebanon, retaliation for the U.S. raid was swift and bloody.

Kidnap Victims Dead

The bodies of three kidnap victims--identified as writer Alec Collett, 64, and teachers Leigh Douglas, 34, and Philip Padfield, 40, all Britons--were dumped on a highway, each shot once in the head.

A note found nearby claimed they were U.S. and British spies and had been “executed” by “Arab commando cells” in reprisal for the attack on Libya. Collett was kidnaped 13 months ago, Douglas and Padfield last month.

Arab anger has been directed at the British government because it allowed the United States to mount the air attack on Libya from a U.S. air base in Britain.

Soon after the bodies were found, a British television cameraman, John McCarthy, 29, was abducted by gunmen in Beirut. Eighteen kidnaped foreigners, including six Americans, are still missing in Lebanon.

Near-Catastrophe

In London today, an alert security guard foiled what could have been a terrorist massacre.

The El Al airline guard, at Heathrow Airport, found a bomb in the false bottom of an Irish woman’s carry-on luggage as she tried to board the Israeli airline’s Flight 16 to Tel Aviv. About 360 people were aboard the targeted Boeing 747, which would have blown up in the air, sources said.

The woman was arrested but her name was not immediately released. British police said she may have been duped by her boyfriend, an Arab, and may not have known about the explosives. A search was mounted for the man.

In Tunis, someone in a passing car hurled a firebomb at the compound housing U.S. Marine guards and other staff members of the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia. An American-owned auto caught fire, but no one was hurt.

To the south, in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, the U.S. Embassy was preparing for an airlift evacuation of more than 200 embassy staff members and dependents.

As Czechoslovakian police stood by, Arab demonstrators in Prague smashed windows and burned an American flag at the U.S. Embassy today. Arabs also protested outside the U.S. mission in Warsaw, and major protests took place in Athens and Amsterdam.