SWAT team storms prison and frees 9 held by Cubans

TALLADEGA, Ala. A SWAT team of more than 700 federal officersstaged a pre-dawn lightning strike on a prison Friday and safelyrescued nine hostages held 10 days by heavily armed Cuban inmatesfighting deportation.

Several explosions shook the darkness and blew open the doors tothe Talladega Federal Correctional Institution in a move made afterthe Cuban inmates threatened to kill three of their hostages, WardenRoger F. Scott said.

"The situation in the unit was deteriorating," he said.

The warden said it took only three minutes for the prison'smaximum-security Alpha unit to blast into the cellblock, seize the121 Cubans and free the seven men and two women held hostage. Onewoman in need of medical treatment had been released Thursday.

None of the hostages was hurt, and one inmate received only aminor injury, federal officials said. One official said 32 of theCuban inmates who had faced deportation the day after the uprisingstarted would be deported today.

The inmates and hostages had endured more than a week withoutfood from outside the occupied building. At one point, the Cubansposted a sign that said the hostages were starving. Food wasprovided early Thursday.

Federal officers gave thumbs-up signs as they left and hostagefamilies cheered the ordeal's end.

President Bush congratulated the tactical teams from the FBI andfederal Bureau of Prisons "for a job well done," said Acting U.S.Attorney General William Barr, who flew from Washington to thefederal prison in central Alabama.

Hostages were taken to the infirmary, where they were pronouncedin good health. The Cubans and 18 non-Cuban inmates in the unit wereput in handcuffs and leg irons.

They had armed themselves with knives, swords, bows and arrows,many of which they had fashioned themselves. Prison officials saidthey would sort out later which of the inmates took part in therevolt and which were held against their will.

The Cubans, who fled their homeland with 125,000 others in the1980 boatlift from Mariel harbor, are under deportation orders forcommitting crimes in the United States.