1970 Munich bus attack | |
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Part of Terrorism in Germany | |
Location | Munich-Riem Airport, Munich, West Germany |
Date | 10 February 1970 |
Attack type | Mass shooting, grenade attack |
Weapons | Submachine guns, hand grenades |
Deaths | 1 |
Injured | 23 |
Perpetrator | Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine |
On 10 February 1970, a bus carrying passengers to an El Al airplane at the Munich-Riem Airport, West Germany was attacked by terrorists. One person was killed and 23 were wounded in the attack. [1]
An El Al Boeing 707 jet was preparing to take off for London when three terrorists opened fire with submachine guns and hand grenades on a bus carrying passengers to the plane. [1] The attack killed one person and wounded 23 others. [1] The pilot of the plane was slightly wounded when he wrestled one grenade-wielding terrorist to the ground while the other terrorists were shooting. [2] After a brief gunfight with police the terrorists were arrested. As the actor Assi Dayan, a son of the Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan was among the passengers some suggested him to have been the target of the attack, while others disregarded this by noting that the attack was indiscriminate and random as Dayan himself was unhurt. [1] [3] Another passenger was actress Hanna Maron who was critically wounded and had to have her leg amputated. [4]
The Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP), as well as the "Action Organization for the Liberation of Palestine" in Jordan claimed responsibility for the attack. [5] The three terrorists arrested for the attack were identified as Mohammed Hadidi and Mohammed Hanasi from Jordan, and Abdul Rachman from Egypt. [1] The terrorists were released and deported later the same year in response to the Dawson's Field hijackings. [6] [7]
The Black September Organization (BSO) was a Palestinian militant organization founded in 1970. Besides other actions, the group was responsible for the assassination of the Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal, and the Munich massacre, in which eleven Israeli athletes and officials were kidnapped and killed, as well as a West German policeman dying, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, their most publicized event. These attacks led to the creation or specialization of permanent counter-terrorism forces in many European countries.
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Events in the year 1970 in Israel.
Events in the year 1968 in Israel.
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