Japanese Killer Confesses Carnage Planned Weeks Ago; Trained in Lebanon for Suicide Mission

The captured Japanese gunman who with two others massacred at least 25 people including a two-year-old girl and wounded more than 70 with grenades and sub-machine-gun fire in the Lydda Airport passenger terminal last night, told his Israeli interrogators today that he and his companions had trained in Lebanon where they arrived six weeks ago and that theirs was a suicide mission.

Namba Dai Saka, who was seized by an airport technician in the midst of the carnage, said the attack had been planned weeks ago. The other gunmen were slain. All belonged to a fanatic underground leftist group known as the Red Star. Saka said that after completing their training in Lebanon, the trio stayed with Arab terrorists in Germany and Austria until they boarded an Air France flight to Tel Aviv at Rome Airport yesterday. It was not clear if they were hired killers or Ideologically motivated.

Six of the Known dead were Jews. The rest were non-Jews Including at least 11 Puerto Ricans on a pilgrimage to Christian holy places in Israel.

Israel’s Transport Minister Shimon Peres declared last night that the “blood bath” at Lydda Airport was “one of the most serious things in the history of aviation and in human behavior.” He said “The government of Israel will take every step to fight this new madness. The human price we paid in blood can never be repaid.” Peres remarked that wanton terrorism in the past “involved only Arabs and Jews. The introduction of Japanese into the picture…shows what the Arabs think of their ability to fight us.”

IN COLD BLOOD

The machinegun and grenade attackers were likened to the kamikaze (suicide) squads of fanatic Japanese during the closing stages of World War II. The slaughter was obviously carefully planned and carried out with robot-like precision. Blood covered the floors and walls of the airport terminal. Human bodies blown to bits by grenades were strewn over the floor and the walls were pock-marked with bullet holes,

The carnage was witnessed by hundreds of visitors at the airport to greet arriving passengers. Only moments earlier–at about 10:30 p.m. local time–the scene at the crowded terminal was normal. About 260 passengers were waiting at the baggage conveyor for their luggage. The three gunmen, well dressed, were part of a large group of passengers, including Puerto Rican pilgrims, who had Just debarked from the Air France flight and passed passport control.

When their luggage arrived they zipped open their valises and took out three Russian-made Kalashnikov submachine guns. In seconds the weapons were assembled, cocked and were firing long bursts all around the densely packed hall. Hand grenades exploded in the middle of the crowd. A group of passengers trying to escape out into the airfield was followed by one of the gunmen who fired bursts at them and threw a grenade.

AIRPORT TECHNICIAN CAPTURES GUNMAN

Another gunman, apparently mistaking his companion for a fleeing passenger, shot him to death. A second later he was killed by the explosion of his own grenade. The third gunman continued to spray the hall with bullets. He was pounced upon by Claude Zeitoun, an airport technician who held him until assistance came and dragged the man, later identified as Saka, into an anteroom.

The dead and wounded lay on the floor, Luggage was scattered. As stunned witnesses and airport personnel recovered from the shook, ambulances were speeding toward the terminal from all directions. At least 12 of the wounded were reported in serious condition as they were rushed to hospitals In Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva and Sarafand.

AVIVIM MASSACRE RECALLED

The massacre happened two years and eight days after the tragic death of eight school children and four adults whose bus was ambushed near the Lebanese border. Twenty-one other passengers, mostly children were also injured, All the youngsters and two of the adult victims were from Avivim, a settlement in the Upper Galilee. They were traveling to their district school In nearby Dovev when at tacked by terrorists using bazookas and small arms. As in yesterday’s attack in Tel Aviv, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed credit for the bus ambush. Only three weeks ago–on May 10–Lydda Airport was the scene of bloodshed when Israeli paratroopers stormed a hijacked Sabena Jet to liberate its 100 passengers and crew members being held hostage by four Palestinian terrorists. One Israeli woman, a passenger, was fatally wounded and two terrorists were killed and two captured.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an extremist terrorist organization headed by Dr. George Habash claimed responsibility for last night’s massacre and said it was intended in part to avenge the deaths of the two terrorists on May 10. But Saka’s confession that the attack was planned weeks ago belled the PFLP’s claim.

Saka told Israeli interrogators that there are many more Japanese in Arab terrorist training camps and that he assumed that many of them were being trained for acts against Israel. His group, the Red Star, Is held responsible for 14 assassinations in Japan and the hijacking of a plane to Korea two years ago.

The gunman at first refused to answer questions which were put to him in English and in Japanese. But after Identifying his slain companions he agreed to cooperate. The gunman burst into tears. He said that he should have died with his friends. He said that minutes before the shooting, they had ripped their photographs out of their passports and even cut identifying trade-marks out of their shoes.