Hijackers Warn That ‘Time Is Running Out’

A Kuwaiti delegation arrived in Iran today to try to negotiate the release of about 80 hostages held aboard a jumbo jet by hijackers who warned that “time is running out” on their demands for Kuwait to free 17 jailed extremists.

The Kuwaiti delegation, including Foreign Ministry officials and a medical team, arrived in Mashhad in northeastern Iran about six hours after the hijackers’ 12-hour deadline expired at 10 a.m., the official Islamic Republic News Agency said. It was not clear whether the hijackers had extended the deadline.

The hostages on board the hijacked Boeing 747 airliner, sitting in a cordoned-off area of the airport, reportedly include three members of Kuwait’s ruling family, who the hijackers said face “imminent danger” unless the demands are met, IRNA reported.

The hijackers, armed with pistols and hand grenades, seized Flight KU422 Tuesday on a flight from Bangkok to Kuwait and forced it to land at the Mashhad airport, 500 miles east of Tehran near the Afghan and Soviet borders.

They threatened to destroy the plane unless Kuwait freed 17 Shia Muslims jailed for the 1983 bombing of U.S. and French embassies and other targets.

Same Demand in 1984

It was the same demand made during the last hijacking of a Kuwait Airways plane to Iran in December, 1984, when members of a pro-Iranian Shia Muslim group forced an A-300 Airbus with 166 people aboard to fly to Tehran. Two American passengers were killed before the six-day standoff ended.

Airline officials reported that 112 people--97 passengers and 15 crew members--were aboard Flight KU422 when it was hijacked. The hijackers released 25 passengers and crew members by early today, and several of the former hostages reported between 5 and 10 hijackers on board the plane.

The Kuwaiti Council of Ministers at an emergency meeting Tuesday evening rejected the hijackers’ demands as “blackmail,” IRNA said, but agreed to send the delegation to Iran to “facilitate the task of the Iranian authorities.”

Tehran radio said the hijackers had “toughened their tone” with the approach of their deadline in a message issued to Iran and Kuwait, which backs Iraq in that country’s 7 1/2-year-old war with Iran.