Russian Plane Flies Freed Hostages to Moscow
Three people were killed when the commandos moved in on Friday after negotiations stalled and the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane they had forced to land in the Muslim holy city of Medina.
Russian diplomats said the hostages flew out at around 0900 GMT on board a Russian plane that had arrived in Medina at dawn.
The hostages had spent the night at a hotel in Medina.
Most appeared shaken by their ordeal which started when hijackers seized the Moscow-bound Tupolev 154 on Thursday after it took off from Istanbul, and forced it to fly to Saudi Arabia.
The hijackers demanded that Russia end its tough military campaign in the rebel Muslim region of Chechnya.
Saudi officials said the troops shot dead one hijacker after he stabbed to death a female flight attendant, and that one other hostage also died in the three-minute raid, carried out in broad daylight on the airport Tarmac.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said in remarks published on Saturday that the kingdom had started questioning the hijackers, but would not say if Saudi Arabia planned to extradite them to Russia for trial.
"Handing over the hijackers is up to contacts between the two countries. The fate of the hijackers would be decided by the Saudi authorities," Prince Nayef said in an interview with the Saudi **** Okaz **** newspaper.
He said the kingdom would make its decision based on its rejection of terrorism, including hijacking.
Prince Nayef did not say how many hijackers were arrested.
Saudi television on Friday showed footage of commandos wrestling three men to the ground and tying their hands behind their backs. Two wore black shirts and the third a white one.
Russian officials had said there were four hijackers.
**** Okaz **** quoted an unnamed senior security source in Medina as saying authorities were also questioning an unspecified number of passengers on suspicion of involvement in the hijack.
The source said two hijackers were in custody.
The office of Russia's Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said there were three hijackers on board, of whom one was killed and two arrested.
It identified the surviving hijackers as Iriskhan Arsayev, born in 1985 and Deni Magomerdzayev, born in 1982. It identified the dead hijacker as Supyan Arsayev, born in 1959.
Russian officials have not yet determined if the two men from the Arsayev family are related to Aslambek Arsayev, a senior Chechen rebel official who was security minister under separatist president Aslan Maskhadov.
Maskhadov's officials have denied any link to the hijack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday praised Saudi Arabia's King Fahd for the handling of the hijack and asked him to hand over the hijackers for Russian to punish.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Russian presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky as praising the rescue operation.
The operation was done in a "timely, prompt and ... highly professional" manner, he said.
Prince Nayef said on Friday the kingdom had turned down a Russian offer to send a crack squad to help in the rescue.
"Saudi special forces stormed the plane and rescued the passengers and crew without the participation of any outside party," he added.
Saudi state television showed the commandos, wearing flak jackets and helmets, scaling ladders and battering their way through the plane's doors over 21 hours after the drama began.
"We were ordered to storm the plane after the pilot screamed for help when the hijackers started to stab some passengers," it quoted the rescue squad leader, Colonel Ali al-Rikhaili, as saying. "We wanted to rescue as many as possible."
"We shot dead one hijacker after we saw him stabbing to death a stewardess. Some passengers suffered from stab wounds," he said, adding that the rescue operation lasted three minutes.
Putin had said on Friday that the hijacking was a reminder of why Russia had sent troops into Chechnya in 1999 on what it calls a counter-terrorist operation.
"The heads of the secret services must concentrate their attention on getting preemptive information about the acts and plans of the ringleaders of the bandit formations, wherever they are, in Russia or outside it," he added in televised comments.
One Russian woman passenger said after being taken to a hotel in Medina: "I saw three hijackers. They treated us well, but sometimes they threatened to blow up the plane. We were frightened and worried. I am tired now."
The Vnukovo Airlines plane had 162 passengers and 12 crew on board when it was seized. More than 40 hostages were released or escaped in Medina before the plane was stormed. A flight attendant stabbed by the hijackers was among those freed.
A pro-Chechen press agency which describes itself as the outlet for statements by separatist forces in Chechnya said the rebels had nothing to do with the hijack because "hostage-taking and blackmail are not our way of fighting".
(Reuter)