Eli Jana, a 25-year-old Israeli killed in last Friday’s terrorist attack on the El Al ticket counter at Vienna airport, was flown to Tel Aviv Tuesday for burial. A brief service was held at the airport here before his body was put aboard an Austrian airliner.
Jana and Ekhart Karner, 50, an Austrian, were slain by bullets fired from the automatic weapons used by the terrorists, according to the medical examiner’s report. In addition, 39 persons were wounded by bullets and hand-grenade fragments, several of them seriously.
The latter include a young Austrian woman who suffered permanent brain damage from a head wound a retired Viennese public official who lost a leg, two Austrian policemen and an El Al security officer.
Two of the three terrorists were wounded and captured and the third was killed by Austrian police who pursued them as they fled the airport in a stolen car.
President Reagan, meanwhile, sent a letter to Chancellor Fred Sinowatz thanking the Austrian authorities for their swift, effective reaction to the attack, which saved many lives.
Sinowatz, in his reply, stressed the need for closer cooperation between governments fighting terrorism. He added, however, that it is just as important to eliminate the situations that nurture terrorism by striving for a just, acceptable political solution to the Middle East conflict.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
