Events
- TWA Flight 847. One of the most dramatic hostage-takings in Lebanon occurred on June 14, 1985, when TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome was hijacked by "Organization for the Oppressed of the Earth." Passengers underwent a three-day, 8,300-mile (13,400 km) ordeal shuttling back and forth between Beirut and Algiers. Groups of passengers were freed over the course of event. One passenger, a U.S. Navy diver, Robert Dean Stethem, was beaten, shot and his body dumped on the runway. Another 39 passengers were held hostage in South Beirut for two weeks, as Lebanese army troops withdrew from the Beirut airport on June 16 leaving Hezbollah and Amal militias to control the area and hold the hostages. On June 30, they were driven to Syria and released. The liberation of the hostages was followed over the next several weeks by the release of 735 Lebanese Shiite militants by Israel. Although this was one of the key demands of the hijackers, Israel maintained the release was unconnected to the hijacking.
Read more about this topic: Lebanon Hostage Crisis
Famous quotes containing the word events:
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