West German police from the regular Bavarian State Police ambushed the terrorists, killing five of the eight Black September members. However, the rescue attempt failed, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages.[13]
A West German police officer was also killed in the crossfire. The West German government faced criticism for the rescue attempt and its handling of the incident. The three surviving perpetrators were arrested but were released the following month in a hostage exchange after the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615.
By then, the Israeli government had launched an assassination campaign, which authorized Mossad to track down and kill anyone who had played a role in the attack.[14][15]
^Black, Ian; Morris, Benny (1991). Israel's secret wars: a history of Israel's intelligence services. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. ISBN978-0-8021-1159-3.
^Benveniśtî, Mêrôn (2000). Sacred landscape: the buried history of the Holy Land since 1948. University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-23422-2. pp. 325–326.
^Elias Chacour with David Hazard: Blood Brothers: A Palestinian Struggles for Reconciliation in the Middle East. ISBN978-0-8007-9321-0. Foreword by Secretary James A. Baker III. 2nd Expanded ed. 2003. pp. 44–61.