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All signs indicated that the hostages were already paying dearly. An Algerian doctor permitted to go aboard described the passengers as tired but in "satisfactory" condition; some of those who were released said they had been manacled and herded into the front rows of the jumbo jet and had not been permitted to read or speak. Plastic bindings had cut deep into their wrists. Toilets became so fouled that some hostages were sickened; Algiers airport workers were finally allowed to clean up. Ramadan Ali, an engineer who holds dual Egyptian and American citizenship and who was one of the twelve hostages released in Larnaca, told of hiding his U.S. passport in a briefcase. He said a hijacker saw his U.S. driver's license but evidently did not know what it was.
In Kuwait more than 2,000 people attended a funeral for the two men slain aboard the jet. Though many of the mourners called for revenge, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad as-Sabah, Kuwait's ruler, was not likely to order the execution of any of the 17 imprisoned terrorists. That might incite the country's Shi'ite minority, which constitutes about 30% of the population. The Kuwaitis view the hijacking as part of their continuing struggle with Iran, which has sought to destabilize their country in an effort to punish it for supporting Iraq in the gulf war.
The taking of Flight 422 exacerbated tensions throughout the Middle East. Syria, which has backed Iran in the gulf conflict, apparently infuriated Tehran by refusing to let the hijacked jetliner land in Damascus after it left Mashhad; at the same time, the skyjacking deepened the split between Iran and the P.L.O. The incident seemed somehow familiar: after the TWA hijacking in 1985, Thomas Cullins, one of the American hostages, noted that "we're pawns in an incredibly complex political and religious movement." The pawns were different last week, but the game had not changed.
FOOTNOTE: *The 1985 seizure of TWA Flight 847 lasted 17 days, but hostages were taken from the plane and hidden in Beirut after the second day.