Is Abu Nidal alive or not?

A member of the Fatah Revolution Council terrorist organization in Lebanon denied information about death of the leader Abu Nidal, Germany’s DPA agency informed on Tuesday.

A Fatah spokesperson in Beirut says, Abu Nidal is healthy and working successfully. He blames American and Israeli secret services for spreading false information about death of Sabri al-Banna (this is the real name of Abu Nidal).

Today director of the Iraqi intelligence service General Tahir Jalil Habbush said at a press conference for local and foreign journalists in Baghdad, Abu Nidal was dead. The general confirmed the earlier published information that Abu Nidal had committed a suicide when Iraqi special services visited him. Security officers allegedly came in the terrorist’s house and asked him to come to the police station for investigation and interrogation. It is said, Abu Nidal agreed to come the police, but he left the room and shot himself in the head.

On the whole, it is still a mystery whether Abu Nidal is dead or alive, it is difficult to say for sure. One thing is clear, very many people wanted to get rid of the terrorist. Indeed, a list of Nidal’s enemies is rather diversified: it includes Yasser Arafat, special services of Israel, European and Arab countries, Islamic radicals, and so on. It is strange that Abu Nidal managed to remain alive up to now.

The name of Sabri al-Banna appeared in the world press at the beginning of the 1970s. Abu Nidal quitted the Palestinian Liberation Organization with a group of his followers in 1974, at that he blamed the PLO leadership for being too gentle toward Israel.

Abu Nidal started terrorist activity in 1972. He was the organizer of several large-scale acts of terrorism, shooting of synagogue parish in 1986 and a PanAm jet hijacking in Karachi in 1986 are among the terrorist acts organized by Abu Nidal. He was also the mastermind of attempts on activists of PLO moderate currents. As Abu Nidal considered Yasser Arafat his personal enemy, he organized an attempt on Yasser Arafat in 1975, that later failed. By request of some Mideast leaders, he organized acts of terrorism against objects situated in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The organization set by Abu Nidal in the 1980s was considered the most dangerous group of Arab terrorists. Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Comment:

Abu Nidal’s group is also known as Black September, Arab Revolution Council, Fatah Revolution Council. It seceded from PLO in 1974. The group consists of several hundreds of soldiers, has police detachments in Lebanon. Its bases are situated in Lebanon’s camps of Palestinian refugees, it is also said to be present in Iraq, Sudan and Algeria, enjoys support from Iraq and Libya (and from Syria till 1987).

1972

September 5. A group of Palestinian terrorists from the Black September organization rushed in Munich’s Olympic village and took an Israeli team hostages. The terrorists setup aclaim to release 200 Palestinians from Israel jails. The authorities guaranteed a free departure for Morocco or Egypt to terrorists, but laid an ambush on the way to the aerodrome. All athletes and several terrorists were killed in the skirmish. Israeli special services spent several years for tracking and liquidation of organizers of the action.

1976

Abu Nidal’s militants took hostages in Semiramix hotel, they demanded that several terrorists should be released from Syrian jails.

June 27. Arab terrorists hijacked a jet belonging to an Israeli airline in Athens. Commandos held an operation for hostages release at an Uganda airport on July 3. Only one passenger out of 257 died.

October. Abu Nidal militants attacked Syrian embassies in Pakistan and Italy. Two attempts on Syrian Foreign Minister Haddam failed in December 1976 and October 1977, during the last attempt, foreign minister of United Arab Emirates was killed.

November. Four militants from Abu Nidal’s group took hostages in Amman, at Intercontinental hotel. During a release operation two soldiers, three hostages were killed.

1980-1982

Abu Nidal’s group claimed responsibility for the assassinations of an Israeli commercial attache in Brussels, a PLO representative in Rome; for an armed attack at synagogues in Vienna and Rome; for an explosions in a Paris restaurant.

1981

Vienna. Nidal’s group organized an attempt on Arafat.

1982

July 3, London. Nidal’s terrorists attacked Israeli ambassador to London.

August 9, Paris. Four members from Abu Nidal’s organization opened fire at a Jewish restaurant, six people were killed and 22 wounded at that.

1983

April. Abu Nidal militants killed Issam Sartawi, member of PLO executive committee, Arafat’s aide for political problems, at a social international conference in Lisbon.

1984

February, Paris. The terrorist group organized assassination of United Arab Emirates ambassador. Organization Muslim Extremists shouldered responsibility for the assassination of mosque servants in Brussels.

March, Athens. Abu Nidal’s organization committed assassination of a British diplomat. 1985

November, Athens. Terrorists headed by Abu Nidal claimed responsibility for hijacking of an Athens – Cairo jet belonging to Egypt. The plane was landed in Malta, about 60 hostages died when Egyptian commandos rushed into the jet.

December, Rome, Vienna. Acts of terrorism were committed simultaneously at the airports of Rome and Vienna, where 16 passengers standing at the stands of Israeli airlines were killed.

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/21/46015.html

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