TEHRAN, Iran--Some of the Moslem militants holding the U.S. Embassy in Tehran made a surprise pilgrimage to Qom yesterday to consult with Ayatollah Ruhollah Knomeini.
Sources said the militants might have tried to persuade Khomeini to order U.S. diplomat L. Bruce Laingen, in custody at the Foreign Ministry, to be handed over to them.
One spokesman for the student militants said 100 of the estimated 500 people occupying the embassy had gone to see the Iranian leader, but another later denied the group was that large.
The students refused to say whether the subject of their visit was their American hostages or Laingen. But one militant said of the Laingen issue. "If we had wanted to discuss that, we would have sent two people."
Charged' Affaires Laingen, the top U.S. diplomat in Iran, has been at the Foreign Ministry with two embassy colleagues since the militants seized the American embassy November 4.
Last week, the militants called on the ministry to turn over Laingen to them for questioning about alleged espionage operations at the embassy. Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh asked Khomeini to make the decision, but the ayatollah so far has been silent on the question.
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