because of the possibility that its new missile and its policy of the proxy use of surrogate warfare against democratic states were revealed to the West.57
The plot of the missile attack on El Al derived from an appalling incident on 21 February 1973, when a Libyan B-727 was shot down over the Sinai desert by an Israeli .ghter, killing the 108 innocent people on-board.58
The Libyan people called for vengeance against Israel. Libya urged the other Arab States to send their warplanes against Israel’s major cities and to destroy Israeli airliners wherever they could be found.59
On 5 January 1974, 220 soldiers and 200 police sealed off .ve square miles around Heathrow International airport in London after receiving reports that terror-ists had smuggled SA-7s into Britain in the diplomatic pouches of Middle-Eastern embassies and were planning to shoot down an El Al airliner.60
Another signi.cant incident occurred on 13 January 1975 when an attempt by terrorists to shoot down an El Al plane with a missile was believed to have brought civil aviation to the brink of disaster. Two terrorists drove their car onto the apron at Orly airport, where they set up a rocket launcher and .red at an El Al airliner which was about to take off for New York with 136 passengers. The .rst round missed the target thanks to the pilot’s evasive action and hit the fuselage of a Yugoslav DC-9 aeroplane waiting nearby to embark passengers for Zagreb. The rocket failed to explode and no serious casualties were reported. After .ring again and hitting an administration building, which caused some damage, the terrorists escaped by car. A phone call from an individual claiming responsibility for the attack was received at Reuters. The caller clearly implied that there would be another such operation, saying ‘Next time we will hit the target’.
In fact, six days later another dramatic though unsuccessful attempt did occur at Orly airport. The French authorities traced the attack to the PFLP Venezuelan terrorist, and leader of the PFLP group in Europe, Carlos.61
It is also known that once again an El Al airliner had been deliberately chosen as a target by Gada. in an attempt to avenge the loss of the Libyan airliner shot down by Israel over the Sinai Desert.62
Despite there failures, on 25 January 1976 another abortive attempt was carried out by three PFLP terrorists, who were arrested by Kenyan police at Nairobi Airport – following a tip-off by Israeli intelligence to the Kenyan General Service Unit – before they had time to .re SA-7 missiles at an El Al aircraft carrying 100 passengers. In connection with this operation, two members of the German Baader-Meinhoff Faction, Thomas Reuter and Brigitte Schultz, were also arrested. After 10 days of interrogation, the terrorists were handed over to Israel by the Kenyan
57Dobson and Payne (1977, p. 134).
58Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 5–11 March 1973, p. 25757.
59Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 5–11 March 1973, p. 25757.
60Mickolus (1980, p. 428).
61Dobson and Payne (1977, p. 53).
62Dobson and Payne (1977, p. 53).
C. Emerging Threats 31
government. However, it was not until March 1977, 14 months after the arrests in Kenya, that the Israelis of.cially announced that they were holding the three Palestinian and two German terrorists. During this period an unsuccessful attempt to gain their release was undertaken by the PFLP in June 1976, when Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France aircraft to Entebbe. The names of the .ve being held in Israel were included on the list of prisoners whose release was demanded in exchange for the hostages. The three Palestinians were released by the Israeli government in 1985.63
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