Al Bawaba, a Jordan-based Arab news service has reported various theories that appeared in the Arab press regarding the death of Abu Abbas. Abu Abbas is the notorious terrorist who was behind the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship. He died in U.S. custody in Iraq on Tuesday.
The American Department of Defense announced that Abbas died while in U.S. custody in Iraq as the result of a heart attack. However Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) members have been widely quoted in the Arab press stating that the U.S. and Israel’s Mossad are in fact responsible for Abu Abbas’ death.
Omar Shibli, the Deputy Secretary-General of the PLF terrorist organization told Al Bawaba Wednesday that, “continuous interrogation by agents from the Mossad and the CIA led to his [Abbas’] tragic death. Since his apprehension last April, Abu Abbas has been the target of a slow assassination plot conducted by the Americans. We all expected him to die in detention as a result of the inhumane conditions he was going through.”
Abbas was captured by American special operations forces during an operation last year on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
Yassir Arafat paid homage to Abu Abbas calling him a "martyr". Arafat and the P.A. leadership reported the death of "the combatant martyr Abu Abbas, former member of the PLO central committee and PLF secretary-general," in a statement to the official P.A. news agency.
Obituaries mourning Abbas’s death were published on the front pages of P.A. newspapers on Thursday.
Shibli said that the PLF will demand an international inquiry to look into the incident of his death, adding “the PLF will ask for unbiased doctors and experts in international law and human rights to conduct a thorough investigation”. He also added “we need to know the truth about what really happened and what was the real cause of Abu Abbas’ death. We have proof that he has been suffering a slow killing process by the Americans.”
Shibli also said that Abu Abbas’ body will be handed to members of the PLF. “Contacts are being held between Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and Abu Abbas’ family over his final resting place - Damascus or Palestine [sic],” Shibli said.
Abu Abbas, whose name actually was Mohammed Abbas was born in Syria in 1948. He attended Damascus University and in 1967 joined George Habash's terror group - the Marxist ‘Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’.
In 1976, Abbas broke away from the PFLP to form a new faction, the Palestine Liberation Front. It launched the first attempt to infiltrate Israel by air in 1981 when two PLF terrorists flew motorized hang-gliders from south Lebanon into northern Israel in an unsuccessful attempt to attack an oil refinery near Haifa.
His terror gang operated out of Tunisia until the October 1985 attack on the Achille Lauro cruise ship, during which a wheelchair bound American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer was murdered and dumped overboard.
The American Department of Defense announced that Abbas died while in U.S. custody in Iraq as the result of a heart attack. However Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) members have been widely quoted in the Arab press stating that the U.S. and Israel’s Mossad are in fact responsible for Abu Abbas’ death.
Omar Shibli, the Deputy Secretary-General of the PLF terrorist organization told Al Bawaba Wednesday that, “continuous interrogation by agents from the Mossad and the CIA led to his [Abbas’] tragic death. Since his apprehension last April, Abu Abbas has been the target of a slow assassination plot conducted by the Americans. We all expected him to die in detention as a result of the inhumane conditions he was going through.”
Abbas was captured by American special operations forces during an operation last year on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
Yassir Arafat paid homage to Abu Abbas calling him a "martyr". Arafat and the P.A. leadership reported the death of "the combatant martyr Abu Abbas, former member of the PLO central committee and PLF secretary-general," in a statement to the official P.A. news agency.
Obituaries mourning Abbas’s death were published on the front pages of P.A. newspapers on Thursday.
Shibli said that the PLF will demand an international inquiry to look into the incident of his death, adding “the PLF will ask for unbiased doctors and experts in international law and human rights to conduct a thorough investigation”. He also added “we need to know the truth about what really happened and what was the real cause of Abu Abbas’ death. We have proof that he has been suffering a slow killing process by the Americans.”
Shibli also said that Abu Abbas’ body will be handed to members of the PLF. “Contacts are being held between Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and Abu Abbas’ family over his final resting place - Damascus or Palestine [sic],” Shibli said.
Abu Abbas, whose name actually was Mohammed Abbas was born in Syria in 1948. He attended Damascus University and in 1967 joined George Habash's terror group - the Marxist ‘Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’.
In 1976, Abbas broke away from the PFLP to form a new faction, the Palestine Liberation Front. It launched the first attempt to infiltrate Israel by air in 1981 when two PLF terrorists flew motorized hang-gliders from south Lebanon into northern Israel in an unsuccessful attempt to attack an oil refinery near Haifa.
His terror gang operated out of Tunisia until the October 1985 attack on the Achille Lauro cruise ship, during which a wheelchair bound American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer was murdered and dumped overboard.