Security men disguised as workers free hostages in Iranian hijacking

TEHRAN,Iran Iranian security men, disguised as m aintenance w orkers and a doctor, yesterday overpow ered four hijackers w ho had threatened to blow up a Kuwaiti jet at Tehran’s airport and freed the rem aining hostages of the six-day o r­ deal. The gunm en, w ho had com m an­ deered the Airbus A-300 jetliner carrying 161 people on Tuesday, w ere "severely beaten u p ” during the assault, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. IRNA gave conflicting reports about the num bers o f hostages freed from the Kuwait Airways jet, first saying seven and then nine, includ­ ing tw o Americans. It said the hostages w ere unharm ed in the as­ sault. IRNA also reported that tw o Kuwaitis, w ho the hijackers had said they had killed along w ith two American passengers, w ere found alive bu t injured aboard the plane. It did not elaborate, bu t hostages freed earlier said there w ere tw o bodies bound and gagged in the cockpit o f the plane, and it was not know n if they w ere dead o r alive. T here was no change in the account that tw o Americans had been slain one on Tuesday shortly after the jet landed here and the o th e r on Thursday.