Confusion over cause of hijack death

Yulia Fomina, 27, was the mother of a nine-year-old girl

MOSCOW, Russia -- Doubts are growing over the cause of death of a stewardess during the hijacking of a Russian airliner that was stormed by Saudi troops.

Saudi officials initially said Yulia Fomina, 27, was killed by a hijackers who slit her throat as the rescue was under way, but forensic tests carried out in Saudi Arabia have shown she was killed by a gunshot.

Authorities are now trying to determine whether the hijackers or the Saudi commandos fired the deadly shot.

Moscow city prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov said: "Witnesses say they (the hijackers) had no firearms."

He said this meant that "maybe" the Saudi troops had killed the flight attendant, although he said he could not confirm this yet.

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An airline official said the flight attendant was used as a human shield by one of the hijackers as the commandos stormed aboard.

The Russian jet, with 162 passengers and 12 crew members, was hijacked shortly after take off from Istanbul on Thursday and diverted to the Muslim holy city of Medina.

About 40 hostages were released or managed to escape before the plane was stormed after 22 hours by elite Saudi troops.

A Turkish passenger and one of the three hijackers were also shot dead in the operation.

Rescue criticised

The body of Fomina, the mother of a nine-year-old daughter, was flown back to Moscow from Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening and buried on Monday.

Relatives were joined by hundreds of wellwishers at the funeral. "It is so sad that on such a bright day we have to put such a young person into the earth," said Yuri Sytkin, flight director of Vnukovo Airlines, owner of the hijacked airliner, paying tribute to Fomina at the graveside.

Saudi officials had said one of the Chechen hijackers, demanding an end to the war in Chechnya, slit her throat as troops stormed the jet at Medina airport.

Avdyukov said such killings by security forces were not seen as a crime when the freeing of hostages was the priority.

President Vladimir Putin thanked Saudi Arabian ruler King Fahd on Sunday and asked for the remaining hijackers to be extradited to Russia.

A Vnukovo Airlines official said: "The Saudi troops did all they could but during such an attack anything is possible."

Vnukovo flight director Yuri Sytnik was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying: "We are grateful to the Saudi authorities."

He said the loss of far more lives had been avoided by the rescue operation..

Russian news agencies quoted Avdyukov as saying he was still waiting for written confirmation of Fomina's injuries and would reach further conclusions when the papers arrived.

One Turkish passenger criticised the Saudi operation at the weekend, calling it unsuccessful.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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