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| Europe |
| German hostage standoff ends peacefully after seven hours |
| 2003-04-25 |
| Police here in Germany say commando units have stormed a hijacked city bus and disarmed the alleged hijacker. Police said there were no injuries during the operation. They said the suspect is a 17-year-old Lebanese youth. He boarded the bus at about mid-morning local time in the northern city of Bremen and then forced the driver to embark on a 170 kilometre chase across northern Germany. Police said the suspect surrendered when the elite police sharpshooters stormed the bus, without firing a shot. There were five hostages on the bus when the seven-hour drama ended near Hanover. The hijacker had freed a number of hostages earlier in the day. According to Der Speigel, "the Lebanon born man was in-patriated in the past year." And had an "Islamic background." |
| Posted by:g wiz |
| #5 That's a real cheap shot (no pun intended) regarding the Olympics. That was the first time any kind of hostage situation like that occurred, and so mistakes were made. Everyone, including the Germans, trains regularly to insure something like that does not happen again. As a graduate of the FBI Hostage Negotiator program, I assure you that today's outcome is what every officer in that situation hopes for. No shots fired, no one hurt, subject in custody. To the German officers involved, job well done! |
| Posted by: Baba Yaga 2003-04-25 17:39:22 |
| #4 If these "Elite Police Sharpshooters" are anything like the ones that got all those Isreali Olympians killed, This kid probably could have gotten away. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-04-25 16:20:04 |
| #3 The 17-year-old, from Lebanon, led police on a cross-country chase from Bremen before the hostages ordeal ended 75 miles away, near Hanover. Bremen's top security official, Kuno Boese, said the youth had written a letter to his parents on Thursday praising the September 11 suicide hijackers. "The crime has a radical Islamic motive," Boese said. Ya think? |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-25 13:55:21 |
| #2 Looks like he wanted to free some islamist terrorists in Munich jail and go to fight as jihadi in Israel. He also wanted to free Al Qaida planner Ramzi Binalshibh. Fat chance. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-04-25 13:40:53 |
| #1 "Islamic background"?! But Islam is the Religion of Peace(TM)! This must be more Zionist lies... |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-04-25 13:29:11 |