Surrender ends 45hr siege

Press, 16 July 1979, Page 1

Surrender ends 45hr siege

NZPA-Reuter Ankara Raising their arms in victory salutes and embracing the hostages they threatened to kill, four Palestinian guerrillas yesterday threw away their guns and surrendered after a 45-hour siege at the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara. The gunmen freed their

last six hostages unharmed and walked out into bright sunshine to surrender to Turkish officials and 500 troops backed by armoured The guerrillas, who stormed the embassy on Friday morning, agreed to give themselves up after a final bargaining session with two officials of the

Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The P.L.O. intervened at Turkey’s request in an attempt to end the siege which left three persons dead and two injured. The end came soon after 8 a.m. when the guerrillas came out on to the Embassy balcony without their guns. They shouted slogans through a mega-

phone and then led their remaining hostages out one by one. The guerrillas embraced their hostages including Ambassador Ahmed Kamal Ama. One of them also embraced the Turkish Minister of the Interior (Hasan Fehmi Gunes) before they were driven away in cars. Officials said the gun-

men grabbed only 14 hostages, not 20 as originally thought, when they stormed the embassy with guns blazing and killed two security guards.

A woman was freed a few hours later and three more were released on Saturday evening. One man died and another was seriously injured when they jumped from a first-floor window to escape.

Two other hostages escaped unharmed by scrambling out through a ground-floor window. The guerrillas, belonging to an- extremist group called the Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution, were taken to a military garrison in ■ the Turkish capital.

The police said the gunmen were under arrest. If brought to trial in Turkey they could face the death penalty for killing the security "guards. One of the six hostages released yesterday, the Egyptian First Secretary, Mohammed Veli, said the Palestinians had treated them well. Earlier, as the drama unfolded against the tense backdrop of bitter Arab opposition to the Egyp-tian-Israeli peace treaty, authorities in Cairo gave Turkey permission to storm the embassy if all else failed.

The guerrillas had demanded the release of two jailed comrades in Egypt, Turkish recognition of the “Palestinian State,” a breaking of relations with Cairo, and safe conduct out of the country.