During February 1972, while Carlos languished in London, one of Haddad's teams was hijacking a Lufthansa airliner to Aden. One of the 172 passengers taken hostage was Joseph Kennedy, son of the late Robert Kennedy. Following a short period of negotiations, Kennedy and the other hostages were released safely after the West German government paid a $5,000,000 ransom. The following May, Haddad sent three members of the Japanese Red Army to carry out a brutal attack at Tel Aviv's Lod airport.   After arriving at the airport, the three men retrieved automatic weapons and grenades from their luggage and opened fire on the crowd. By the time the firing had stopped, twenty-three travelers were dead and another seventy-six were wounded.

A gunman during the Munich Olympic Games attack

Two of the terrorists died during the attack, but not from opposing fire. One was killed accidentally when hit by a stray round from one of his companions and the other died when a grenade he was holding detonated prematurely. In September of the same year, a commando squad made up of members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah calling themselves "Black September" launched a pre-dawn raid on the Israeli dormitory at the Munich Olympics. After killing one of the athletes and a coach, the group held the other athletes hostage and demanded the release of 200 of their countrymen who were imprisoned in Israel.

After a day of terse negotiations, the West Germans agreed to supply a jet that would take the group and their hostages to Cairo. All went according to plan until German snipers at the airport fired upon the commandos. In the gun battle that followed, nine Israeli athletes and five of the terrorists were killed. When news of the raids reached Carlos he became angry and vented his frustration at having been left out of three decisive strikes that had rocked the world. His frustration mounted as news of the exploits of another of the party faithful reached him.