WORLD IN BRIEF : IRAN : 4 Hijackers Killed in Midair Shoot-Out

Four men armed with grenades and handguns tried to hijack an Iranian airliner during a domestic flight, but security guards killed them in a midair shoot-out, Iranian news reports said. Tehran Radio said the gunmen tried to seize the Boeing 727 on Thursday night after it took off from Shiraz in southwest Iran en route to the port city of Bandar Abbas. The plane later returned safely to Shiraz. A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard said that the hijackers had demanded to go to Israel or Iraq. A guard statement described the hijackers as “mercenaries of America,” a catch-all phrase for opposition groups. The Revolutionary Guard set up a unit of sky marshals in 1984 after a series of hijackings.