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The hijackers and the 17 prisoners appear to share religious ties. Sixteen of the men jailed in Kuwait are Shi'ite Muslims who are thought to support Iran and its leader, the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Hostages released from the jetliner said the gunmen often spoke in religious terms. Sherif Mahrojk Badrawi, a Kuwait Airways ticket agent in Cairo, called them "good Muslims" who "spoke to us in a very Koranic language. They were always using verses from the Koran." The hijackers are thought to belong to Hizballah, a radical Shi'ite group.
The skyjacking had its bizarre moments. To emphasize their willingness to die for their cause, the hijackers told the Larnaca tower at one point that they had donned death shrouds and renamed the jetliner the "Plane of the Great Martyrs." When a controller referred to the craft as "Kuwait 422," a hijacker snapped back, "No! Plane of Martyrs!" Replied the tower: "Sorry, Plane of Martyrs." As the hostages sweltered inside their metal prison, planeloads of European vacationers came and went at the Larnaca field, wind surfers skittered across the sea next to the runway, and curious Cypriot families wandered among the journalists clustered along the airport road.
Senior Airport Controller Andreas Georgiades was impressed by the gunmen's poise. "They were very calm, very cool," he said. "Other hijackers I have dealt with were angry and shouted. But you wouldn't believe these latest ones would kill someone in cold blood." Kill they did, however. Two passengers -- Abdullah Khalidi, 25, and Khalid Ayoub Bandar, 20, both Kuwaitis -- were shot to death and dumped on the tarmac.
Authorities at Larnaca Airport initially refused to refuel the jetliner. But after the two hostages were killed and Algeria offered to take the plane, they relented and filled its tanks, allowing the aircraft to leave for Algiers. The standoff continued in Algeria, which helped negotiate the release of 52 American hostages from Iran in 1981. Algerian officials opened talks with the hijackers the day the plane landed. At one point, the jetliner was asked to taxi away from the airport terminal as a security measure while a plane carrying Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda landed. After the African leader departed, Flight 422 moved back to its old spot. Algerian sources blamed Kuwait's "intransigent" refusal to discuss the 17 jailed terrorists for the lack of progress in the talks. But Kuwait, which sent a delegation headed by Sa'ud Mohammed al-Usaymi, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, insisted the radicals would not be released.
To heighten the pressure, the hijackers put several hostages on the radio to plead for a resolution of the crisis. One, who identified himself as Mohammed Ahmed al-Hajemi, declared in a strained voice, "I greet my family, and I ask the Kuwaiti authorities to free the prisoners. Otherwise the kidnapers will kill us." Throughout, the skyjackers defended their actions. "We are men of principle, not highway bandits," one asserted. "We would have preferred not to use such methods, but we have no choice. We repeat our demand for the liberation of our 17 brothers, and we will not go back on that even if the price is very high."