Word: egyptians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...dispatched an airliner to Beirut to pick them up. The squad, armed with Soviet AK-47 submachine guns, was kept out of sight inside the terminal, waiting for a crack at the hijackers. Later, there were reports that Arafat's men participated in the shooting of the Egyptian commandos, but Cyprus officials insisted that the P.L.O. squad never fired a shot...
More puzzling was the role of the Egyptian commandos. The second telephone call had come from Sadat. In anguish over the assassination of his friend, he begged President Kyprianou to rescue the hostages, one of whom was Egyptian, and to send the Palestinian killers to Cairo for trial. Kyprianou told him, "I personally will handle the matter...
That assurance was scarcely comforting to Sadat, who knew that Cyprus had long been a haven for Palestinian terrorists. Fearing that the killers might be freed, Sadat alerted the Egyptian army's crack Saiqa (Lightning) commando team and ordered it sent to Larnaca. Cairo merely informed Kyprianou that "we have people on the way to help rescue the hostages." Clearly, Sadat was preparing for an Entebbe-like raid. When the Egyptian transport arrived, Cypriot officials were stunned to discover that the "helpers" were Commando General Nabil Shukry and his assault team. Most were wearing combat suits. For some unexplained...
Adamantly, Kyprianou refused to allow the Egyptian team to act. As negotiations wore on late into Sunday evening, Shukry correctly decided that the Cypriots were preparing to release the two assassins. He sent his men into action-and disaster...
...tail of the Egyptian transport dropped, and a Jeep with four men aboard charged down the ramp. Firing nearly all the way, the men in the Jeep sped toward the DC-8 800 yds. down the dark tarmac. The remaining commandos moved out on foot at an almost leisurely pace. It proved fatal. "They were walking at a slow march," recalled a Western military observer who witnessed the attack. "My first thought was that this was a deliberate diversion. I was sure that a killer team must be climbing up the steps to the airplane under cover and unseen...