HIJACKING IN SAUDI ARABIA.

On March 16, Saudi commandos stormed a Vnukovo Airlines jet sitting on the tarmac in Medina which had been hijacked the previous day by three knife-wielding Chechens while en route from Istanbul to Moscow. Some 162 passengers and twelve crewmembers were on board. A Russian woman flight attendant was killed as the commandos stormed the plane. A Turkish passenger and one of the Chechens also died. The terrorist incident received heavy coverage on Russian television (Reuters, March 17; Gazeta.ru, March 16, 19; Segodnya, March 16; see also the Monitor, March 19).