Italian security forces searched the capital Saturday for an Arab terrorist cove that supplied the arms and documents for the four terrorists who made the barbaric attack on Rome`s Leonardo da Vinci Airport Friday that left 15 people dead and 72 wounded.
A simultaneous attack on a Vienna airport left three dead. Among those killed were four terrorists, two in Rome and one in Vienna.
”We are convinced that somewhere in Rome exists a hideout where arms and explosives are kept for terrorist actions,” a police spokesman said.
And Friday`s bloody attack on the airport`s departure area could have cost the lives of more people but for a tipoff from Interpol in Holland just before Chirstmas.
In the cryptic message, Dutch police informed Italian authorities that it had information that an Arab suicide squad planned to attack an Italian airport about Christmastime.
When the killer group arrived about 9 a.m. Friday, airport security was already in a state of full alert. The terrorists found themselves immediately under fire from Israeli and Italian security agents posted around the departure area.
An airport security official said the high casualty toll was due to the fact that the terrorists threw two hand grenades into the hall`s crowded coffee shop before firing bursts from their automatic weapons at passengers and relatives checking in at the El Al and TWA counters for flights to Tel Aviv and New York.
In the gun battle between terrorists and security agents, innocent bystanders were killed or wounded in the crossfire.
But the terrorists had no time to activate 11 hand grenades. ”Our men also had trouble identifying the terrorists in the crowd. It gave the killers enough time to shoot at the crowd,” a police agent said.
In fact a South American tourist, Mrs. Annalisa Del Grande, said she watched gun-toting security men run among the wounded and dying in search of the terrorists, who had taken refuge behind the bodies.
”One of the terrorists was lying near me. He was wounded but reached for his rifle as two Israeli security agents approached. One of them hit him on the shoulder with his pistol butt, but the terrorist still went for his gun. So the second agent shot him dead at point-blank range. The blood splattered all over my suitcase.”
The fourth terrorist was captured by Italian security men as he tried to escape, limping from a wound in the leg.
He had to be hit on the head with a pistol to stop him from running and the enraged crowd punched and pummeled him before he could be rescued by police reinforcement.
Italian actress Sandra Milo, who was flying to New York, said she saw the wounded terrorist ”dragged along the ground by his hair” by the infuriated mob before he was rescued.
The terrorist, identified Abbegren Tigriwi, 25, was taken to a hospital together with some of his victims.
He was still in critical condition Saturday, along with two Israeli security men identified as Nir Cohen and Ram Neger. Both were at the El Al check-in counter when the terrorists opened fire.
The toll in the Rome attack rose from 13 to 15 with the deaths Saturday of an American man and an Italian woman. The death toll in a simultaneous at a Vienna airport stood at 3 dead.
Police and hospital officials said Don Maland, 30, of New Port Richey, Fla., died at Rome`s St. Giovanni hospital early in the day. Later, according to the Italian Interior Ministry, Elena Tomarello, 67, died at San Camillo hospital.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Dillen also identified one of the previously reported dead as an American, Frederick Gage, 29, of Madison, Wis. He was a member of the board of directors of the Capital Times Co.
The confirmation of Gage`s death pushed the number of the Americans killed in the Rome attack to four. The others were 11-year-old Natasha Simpson, a resident of Rome, and John Buonocore, 20, of Wilmington, Del.
Among the injured were Mike and Ida Sweis of Oak Lawn, Ill., and their children Sayel, 12; Janet, 11; Sammy, 9; and Julie, 6. One report said Janet`s leg was crushed, though none was reported in critical condition.
Police planned to interrogate two of the surviving gunmen today, one in Rome and one in Vienna.
The Rome attack was carried out by four gunmen. Three were killed in an ensuing gunbattle with police. A three-man team carried out the Vienna attack. One was killed and two wounded.
The guerrillas were carrying no passports, police said. But receipts found on them led police to two Rome hotels where two young men with Moroccan passports had stayed since early December.
Italian Premier Bettino Craxi said that ”according to a first evaluation, they (the terrorists) probably belong to the extreme Arab-Palestinian fringe, either acting on their own or as a crazy splinter group.” Palestine Liberation Organization officials at the group`s headquarters in Tunisia denied involvement, although Israel`s ambassador to the United States, Meir Rosenne, told CBS Morning News he believed the PLO was responsible.
In Israel, Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Israel ”would defend its citizens,” an apparent hint at possible retaliation.
Italian Interior Minister Oscar Scalfaro called an emergency meeting Saturday of Italy`s top police and security officials.
