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Hijack Bid To Kidnap U.S. Envoy Thwarted
DJIBOUTI, Jan 23 (News Agencies) - An armed pro-Iraqi activist failed in his attempt Tuesday to abduct a U.S. ambassador and take her to Baghdad by hijacking a Yemeni airliner in which she was traveling, according to police and other sources here and in Sanaa.
The bid was thwarted by Yemenia's female pilot, Rosana Mustafa Abdul Khaldeq, who struggled with the hijacker while her co-pilot, named only as Anis, managed to tie him up after touching down, sources at the airline said.
Security sources here named the hijacker as Mohammed Yayha Ali Sattir and said he was born in Sanaa in 1971.
Yemeni diplomatic sources in Djibouti said the hijacker's intention was to take U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Sanaa Barbara Bodine, to Baghdad.
But after Sattir ordered the pilot to do this while the plane was making a domestic flight in Yemen, warning that he would otherwise blow up the aircraft, Khaldeq convinced the hijacker to allow a refueling detour to Djibouti.
Upon landing in Djibouti just after noon, the pilot activated all the aircraft's emergency slides, allowing all passengers, Bodine included, to disembark safely.
The hijacker had intended to fly from Djibouti to Baghdad with Bodine as the only passenger.
Together with two bodyguards, two French businessmen and some Yemeni protocol officers, Bodine later flew back to Yemen aboard Djibouti's presidential jet, according to a reporter at the airport.
Bodine later arrived in Sanaa, according to an airport official there.
All passengers aboard the Yemenia Boeing 727 were safe and sound, according to Djibouti police and airport officials. Another airplane was expected to arrive in Djibouti to repatriate the passengers and crew of the hijacked Yemenia flight.
When the plane was on the ground in Djibouti, Khaldeq and her co-pilot tussled with the hijacker in the cockpit, where he had earlier appeared saying he had placed explosives on the plane.
The co-pilot, named only as Anis, managed to tie up the hijacker, who together with the pilot, was slightly injured and admitted to a Djibouti hospital.
There were conflicting reports about how the hijacker was armed, with some sources saying he fired two shots without harming anybody and others saying he only possessed a weapon shaped like a pen and capable of firing only a single shot.
"Four Americans from the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, including Bodine, were on board the plane," Dona Visocand, economic officer at the U.S. embassy there, said.
Bodine and Yemen's ambassador to Washington, Abdel Wahab al-Hajri, were traveling to a meeting with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is touring the country ahead of municipal elections on February 20th, Sanaa officials said.
"Bodine was heading for Taiz to meet with President Saleh for talks on the USS Cole," Visocand said without elaborating.
Bodine, who is normally accompanied by a team of armed bodyguards, has been at the forefront of investigations into the October 12th blast on the Cole warship in the southern Yemeni port of Aden that left 17 U.S. sailors dead.
Contacts are underway with Djibouti port authorities for the return of the Yemenia plane to Sanaa in the afternoon, according to Yemeni and U.S. sources in Sanaa.
The plane was first to be thoroughly searched for explosives.
Another plane was expected from Yemen to collect the stranded passengers.
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