Kuwait Jet Hijackers Want Prisoners Freed

Arab hijackers armed with pistols and hand grenades today commandeered a Kuwaiti Airways jumbo jet with 112 people aboard, including three members of Kuwait’s Royal Family, forced it to land in Iran and threatened to blow it up.

Iran’s official media said the hijackers demanded the release of 17 pro-Iranian prisoners held in Kuwait. That is the same demand made by Iranian-backed Shia Muslims holding foreign hostages in Lebanon.

Three members of Kuwait’s royal Al Sabah family and one passenger with dual American and Egyptian passports reportedly were aboard the Boeing 747, which was hijacked to Mashhad in northeastern Iran on a flight from Bangkok to Kuwait.

The airline said the members of Kuwait’s ruling family were Ibtesam Khaled al Sabah, Fadil Khaled al Sabah and the wife of Khaled Anwar al Sabah. Hundreds of Kuwaitis are related to Kuwait’s emir.

The Egyptian-American was identified as R. Attiaallaali.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said the hijackers allowed a Jordanian passenger with a heart condition off the aircraft after it was surrounded by Iranian security troops.

It quoted the passenger, business executive Mustafa Issa, 42, as saying that five or six hijackers armed with pistols and hand grenades seized the plane three hours after it took off from Bangkok.

Kuwait urged Iran to handle the incident “wisely” and requested that the aircraft not be allowed to take off. But Issa told IRNA the hijackers were insisting on flying on to an undetermined destination.

Iran first denied the plane permission to land but reversed its decision when the pilot said the jet was running out of fuel, IRNA said.

The agency said the hijackers demanded fuel and threatened to blow up the aircraft if “any person should attempt to approach it.”

Prime Minister Hussein Musavi of Iran told Tehran Radio that he was trying to “resolve the incident peacefully to save the lives of the people on board.”

Kuwaiti Airways said that Flight 422 was carrying 97 passengers and 15 crew members and that the passenger list included 30 Kuwaitis, 22 Britons, 8 Thais, various other nationalities and 1 person with both an American and Egyptian passport.