Rome and Vienna airport attacks
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| Rome and Vienna airport attacks | |
|---|---|
 Aftermath of a fast food restaurant in the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport after the attack |
|
| Location | Rome, Italy and Vienna, Austria |
| Date | 27 December 1985 9:15 am (UTC+1) |
| Attack type | direct assault on target; possibly attempted hijacking |
| Death(s) | 19 civilians; 4 terrorists |
| Injured | 138 civilians; 1 terrorist shot and captured; 2 terrorists captured |
| Perpetrator(s) | Abu Nidal Organization |
The Rome and Vienna airport attacks were two major terrorist attacks carried out on December 27, 1985.
On that day at 08:15 GMT, four gunmen walked to the ticket counter of Israel's El Al Airlines and Trans World Airlines at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport near Rome, Italy, and opened fire with assault rifles and grenades. They killed 16 people and wounded 99 others before three of them were killed. The remaining one was shot and captured by police.
Minutes later, at the Schwechat Airport (Vienna International Airport) in Vienna, Austria, three terrorists carried out a similar attack. Hand grenades were thrown towards crowds of passengers queuing to check-in for a flight to Tel Aviv. The terrorists killed two people and wounded 39 others. A third victim died on January 22, 1986, of hand grenade wounds sustained in the attack. The terrorists then fled the airport by car, and Austrian police gave chase. They killed one terrorist and captured the other two.
In all, the attacks killed 19, including a child, and wounded around 140. Some reports said that the original plan of the gunmen was to hijack El Al jets from the airports and blow them up over Tel Aviv; [1] others said that firing at the ticket counters was the plan and that Frankfurt's airport was to be hit as well.[2]
The attacks were first blamed on Palestine Liberation Organization, but its leader, Yasser Arafat, denied the accusations and denounced the attacks. In fact, the PLO believed that the object of the attacks was to force Austria and Italy to sever ties with the Palestinians.[3]Responsibility for the terrorist attack was later claimed by the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) who claimed it was in retaliation for Operation Wooden Leg, the Israeli bombing of PLO headquarters in Tunis on October 1. Libya was accused of funding the terrorists who carried out the attacks, but although they denied the charges they did praise the assaults. Sources close to Abu Nidal said that Libyan intelligence had supplied the weapons; the man who organized the attacks was the ANO's head of the Intelligence Directorate's Committee for Special Missions, Dr. Ghassan al-Ali. Libya denied these charges, though it hailed the attacks as "heroic operations carried out by the sons of the martyrs of Sabra and Shatila." [4]
The attack was similar to the 2002 Los Angeles Airport shooting.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.tkb.org/Incident.jsp?incID=4453
- ^ Seale, Patrick. Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 244.
- ^ Seale, Patrick. Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 246.
- ^ Seale, Patrick. Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 245.
