A friend was showing me a post on 9gag about kidnapped Soviets in Beirut and how Russia’s counter-terrorism Alpha Group handled the situation. I’ve read a lot about kidnappings, specially from the PLO, in the 1980s but I’ve never heard this part of the story.
Here’s what happened:
Four Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in September 1985 by a fundamentalist group called the Islamic Liberation Organization. Russia quickly dispatched its Alpha group, tasked with counter-terrorism hostage-rescue operations, to Beirut. Once the team learned that Arkady Katkov, a consular attaché and one of the four hostages, was killed, they responded quickly by tracking down and locating one of the kidnappers’ leaders (or relative it’s not clear). In order to send a clear message to the terrorists, Alpha group members castrated the hostage, cut him down into pieces and sent him to the hostage takers. They also threatened to kill more of the kidnappers’ relatives if the Soviet diplomats were not free.
As a result, the 3 hostages were released and dropped off near the Soviet Embassy and no Russian officials were ever taken captive since then. Some say that the release of the Soviet hostages was the result of extensive diplomatic negotiations with the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.
It’s not surprising to see the Russians react that way to hostage situations specially after what they’ve done during the Moscow theater and the Beslan school hostage crisis.
Speaking of hostages, would you support approaches similar to the Russian one to free our kidnapped soldiers?
everyone knows it but hezbollah likes to keep it in his past
Force is the only language those animals understand.
Apologies to animals for the comparison.
Nothing is different between them..
Several Russians have been kidnapped by IS, and at least one was purportedly shot dead in one of their videos (supposedly by a child). I don’t think this is very realistic.
Hi Sara,
Kidnapped in Lebanon that is.
Soviets were allies of Hezbollah, so this story does not make any sense. Soviet diplomats were taken by Islamic liberation organisation, part of Muslim Brotherhood, enemies of Hezbollah in that time. Alpha group kidnapped relatives of militants who hold Russians. That story with Hezbollah was made up by Jerusalem post few month later.
“Six years later, in October 1985, Alpha Group was dispatched to war-torn Beirut, Lebanon. The Kremlin was informed of the kidnapping of four Soviet diplomats by the militant group, the Islamic Liberation Organization (a radical offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood). It was believed that this was retaliation for the Soviet support of Syrian involvement in the Lebanese Civil War.[19] However, by the time Alpha arrived, one of the hostages had already been killed. Through a network of supporting KGB operatives, members of the task-force identified each of the perpetrators involved in the crisis, and once identified, began to take the relatives of these militants as hostages. Following the standard Soviet policy of no negotiations with terrorists, some of the hostages taken by Alpha Group were dismembered, and their body parts sent to the militants. The warning was clear: more would follow unless the remaining hostages were released immediately.[20]”
ISIS has a small memory, remember 1979 the Soviet embassy was stormed as well by Afghans who were in exile due to their war with Russia. Russia sent special forces over the Iranian border and shot an entire village to death, sent a video to the Ayatollah, Iran sent in the army to take back the Russian embassy and get the hostages back. Point if the story don’t mess with Russia.
Dear Najib,
I have been reading your friends’ blogs and especially yours lately, after browsing through the Web on Lebanon. I am sorry, this is nothing related to your blog but I would really love to explore Jordan and Lebanon before these beautiful countries full of history slowly disappear.. I’ll be traveling alone this October. Wondering if you know of anyone trusted driver to recommend, who’d be able to bring you around during my stay?
Any suggestions is appreciated! Thank you so much for reading and I really hope to hear from you through my email or here!
Sorry, there was some error.. I meant to say if you know of anyone who could bring me around…
You should check out Bridget Gabrielle she is a Lebanese immigrant to the USA she give talks on the nations of Lebanon when it was a Christian Nation, and also Jordan and Syria. Really informative and its not all a Islamic bashing lecture. Its worth checking out.