‘Situation Out of Control,’ Hijacked Jetliner Refueled

Workers refueled a Kuwaiti jetliner today after its Arab hijackers fired at security guards and threatened to force it to take off with what little fuel it had, Iran’s official news agency said.

As the drama at Mashhad Airport in northeastern Iran stretched into its third day, the hijackers said they had placed explosives throughout the Kuwait Airways jumbo jet, which still has 55 passengers and crew aboard, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The situation at the airport is “out of control,” according to the news agency, monitored in Nicosia.

The hijackers, said to number between five and seven, are demanding that Kuwait release from its prisons 17 pro-Iranian extremists who were convicted of bombing the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983.

Hijackers ‘Very Serious’

Among the hostages on the Boeing 747 are three members of Kuwait’s Royal Family. One of them appealed to Iranian authorities to provide jet fuel, IRNA said.

“We’re very tired and our brothers (the hijackers) are very serious in their threat to blow up the plane,” Fadel Khaled al Sabah told the control tower by radio, the agency reported.

Early today, the hijackers released 32 people. On Tuesday and Wednesday, 25 passengers were freed.

The hijackers later fired several shots after repeating their demand for fuel. No casualties were reported.

IRNA said the runway had been closed to prevent the plane from taking off, but it did not elaborate.

No ‘Time to Be Frightened’

The plane has been at Mashhad since Tuesday, when it landed there after being commandeered en route to Kuwait from Bangkok with 112 people aboard.

Iranian media and some of the freed hostages have described the gunmen as masked, Arabic-speaking men armed with pistols and hand grenades.