A SWAT team Friday stormed the high-security cellblock where Cuban inmates had held nine hostages, rescuing them safely in a three-minute strike before dawn, federal officials said.
Warden Roger F. Scott of the Talladega Federal Correctional Institute said Cuban inmates armed with homemade knives had been fighting among themselves and had picked a hostage at random to kill, prompting authorities to storm the building to end the standoff in its 10th day."The situation in the unit was deteriorating," Scott said. "The detainees had intentions to kill one or more hostages."
The strike by the FBI SWAT team and other federal officers began at 3:43 a.m. CDT. Within three minutes, the rebellion was put down, Scott said. He indicated there was little resistance.
"All of the hostages were rescued safely and they are now receiving medical treatment," Acting Attorney General William Barr said in Washington at FBI headquarters. "None were injured. We believe that one inmate received a minor injury."
The action began with one explosion, followed by another five minutes later, that sent smoke drifting through the air. About 20 officers in riot gear spread across the roof of the unit at the Talladega Federal Correctional Institute.
Soon after, about 10 officers were seen patrolling the roof. The authorities tore down the Cuban flag and banners that had been raised by the inmates during the 10-day siege.
FBI agents leaving the prison about an hour later gave the thumbs-up sign, and a huge cheer was heard from a building housing the hostages' families. The building is near the main prison complex.
The standoff began Aug. 21, when the Cuban inmates took 10 prison workers hostage. The high-security cellblock houses 121 Cuban prisoners who have been convicted of crimes since coming to the United States in the Mariel boatlift of 1980 and now face deportation to Cuba. Several have said they would rather die than return to their homeland.
The prison warden, who was joined by Barr and FBI Director William Sessions at a late-morning news conference at the central Alabama prison, said that during a medical check Thursday night the hostages had sent messages to loved ones saying they might not have another chance to communicate with them.
The warden said the inmates had an extensive armory of knives, swords and spears, and any further delay in bringing the siege to an end would have resulted in "a dramatic increase in the risk of harm to hostages."
He said identification tags of the hostages had been placed in a pillow case. A name tag was drawn at random from the pillow case, he said, with the hostage whose name was picked told he would be killed.
President Bush congratulated those involved in Friday's rescue "for a job well done," Barr said.