Hijacked Jet Flies to France After 3rd Slaying

An Air France plane commandeered by Muslim extremists flew from Algeria to the southern French city of Marseilles early today, hours after the gunmen killed an employee of the French Embassy. Authorities were negotiating for the release of about 170 hostages still on board.

Since Saturday, when the plane was seized in the Algerian capital of Algiers, three passengers have been killed by the five hijackers in the most dramatic act yet in the bloody, 3-year-old guerrilla war against Algeria’s military-installed government.

By allowing the plane, an Airbus A300, to leave Algiers for France, the Algerian government had met one of the hijackers’ demands. But, beyond that, it wasn’t clear what the five men, armed with two Kalashnikov rifles and two handguns, wanted. An earlier demand for the release of two Muslim extremist leaders imprisoned in Algeria apparently had been dropped.

The plane arrived early today at Marignane Airport, 25 miles north of Marseilles, a major Mediterranean port about a two-hour flight from Algeria. It taxied to a remote corner of the tarmac, where firefighting teams were standing by, and negotiations began between French authorities and the hijackers.

The arrival of the plane on French soil changed the situation. For one thing, the government of France, which had earlier offered to dispatch one of its crack, anti-terrorist units to help the Algerian authorities, was now completely in charge.

Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and his foreign minister had spent most of Christmas Day meeting about the hijacking and trying to talk the Algerians into letting the plane come to France.

The hijackers, who would most certainly face execution in Algeria if apprehended there, may have been hoping for an easier exit from the drama in France, where there is no death penalty.

And France’s record on handling terrorist cases, especially those involving Algerian guerrillas, is mixed. Some suspects have been tried and sent to prison, but many others have been expelled to Iran or other neutral countries in West Africa.

On the other hand, France has a history of dealing decisively, and often with deadly force, in hostage situations.

Algerian radio said Algeria had allowed the plane to leave to “safeguard human lives and avoid material losses.”

On Saturday, the hijackers had killed two passengers and freed about 60 hostages, mostly women and children.

The body of the third victim, Yannick Beugnet, who was a cook at the French Embassy in Algiers, was dumped from the plane late Sunday. He was the 23rd French citizen killed by the extremists in the past three years. French news reports said he was killed when a departure deadline, fixed by the hijackers, had passed.

The French Foreign Ministry indicated Sunday that it had been pressuring Algeria to let the plane take off because the hijackers had threatened to kill a French hostage.

“The hostages are our primary concern,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French television Sunday.

The jet had 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard when it was taken over shortly before takeoff for France on Saturday. (Air France earlier had said 271 passengers were aboard.) Authorities said the hijackers may have posed as baggage handlers. It was initially reported that there were four hijackers, but officials said Sunday that there were five.

All the female passengers had been released, though female flight attendants remained, Air France said.

A freed hostage described how one passenger, an Algerian police officer, pleaded for his life before he was shot in the head.

“He screamed, ‘Don’t kill me! I am married! I have a child!’ ” said the woman, who spoke to news agencies on condition of anonymity.

The gunmen also killed a Vietnamese passenger. Both bodies were dumped on the ramp outside the plane.

Algerian authorities said they had identified four of the five gunmen, and all were from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the most radical of several extremist groups fighting the Algerian government. The GIA has frequently targeted French nationals in its terrorist attacks.

Although Air France declined to give the passengers’ nationalities, the authorities said most were Algerian. U.S. officials said there was no word of any Americans aboard. Juppe said 40 French nationals remained on the plane.

The hijacking came two days before the third anniversary of the last round of Algerian elections, which the government had canceled when it appeared a Muslim group, the Islamic Salvation Front, would win. The military installed its own leaders in January, 1992.

At first, the hijackers reportedly had demanded the release of Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, the top two leaders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front. Government officials later said that demand had been dropped.