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'Mughnieh hijacked planes'
14/02/2008 14:08 - (SA)
Kuwait City - An Egyptian former steward with Kuwait Airways claimed in press comments on Thursday that slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh was the hijacker of two Kuwaiti passenger planes in the 1980s.
"The picture of Mughnieh I saw on satellite channels is the same man who hijacked the planes of Kazmah and Jabriyah," the steward, who was on both the flights, told daily Al-Rai. He was identified only as S.
The two planes, an Airbus and a Boeing 747, were hijacked by militant Shi'ite groups to demand the release of 17 Shi'ite activists who were jailed in Kuwait for carrying out a series of bombings against US, French and Kuwaiti targets.
"His picture is stuck in my head and I can not forget him. He had very dark brown hair," the steward said.
The co-ordinated attacks in December 1983 targeted US and French embassies, the Kuwait Airport tower, a refinery and petrochemicals complex and the main power control station, killing and wounding dozens.
In May 1985, a suicide bombing targeted the motorcade of former emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah who escaped with minor injuries but two of his guards were killed.
The attacks came at the height of the Iraq-Iran war apparently in protest for Kuwait's backing of Baghdad which was under the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Although it is widely believed in Kuwait that Mughnieh was the mastermind of the hijackings, the Gulf emirate has never officially named him.
But Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah told Al-Seyassah daily Wednesday that "all of Kuwait is pleased by Mughnieh's killing."
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