Abu Nidal | |
---|---|
أبو نضال | |
![]() Abu Nidal in an image released in 1976 | |
Born | Sabri Khalil al-Banna May 1937 |
Died | 16 August 2002 | (aged 65)
Resting place | Al-Karakh Islamic cemetery, Baghdad |
Nationality | Palestinian |
Organization | Fatah: The Revolutionary Council (known as the Abu Nidal Organization) |
Political party | Ba'ath Party (1955–1967) Fatah (1967–1974) Fatah Revolutionary Council (1974–2002) |
Movement | Rejectionist Front |
Sabri Khalil al-Banna (Arabic: صبري خليل البنا; May 1937 – 16 August 2002), known by his nom de guerre Abu Nidal ("father of struggle"),[1] was a Palestinian militant. He was the founder of Fatah: The Revolutionary Council (Arabic: فتح المجلس الثوري), a militant Palestinian splinter group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO).[2] Abu Nidal formed the ANO in October 1974 after a split from Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).[3]
Acting as a freelance contractor, Abu Nidal is believed to have ordered attacks in 20 countries, killing over 300 and injuring over 650.[4][5][6] The group's operations included the Rome and Vienna airport attacks on 27 December 1985, when gunmen opened fire on passengers in simultaneous shootings at El Al ticket counters, killing 20. At the height of its militancy in the 1970s and 1980s, the ANO was widely regarded as the most ruthless of the Palestinian groups.[7][8][4][9] The ANO was long suspected by the Palestinian leadership to have been infiltrated by the Israeli Mossad, with Abu Nidal himself having been on the CIA payroll.[10][11]
Abu Nidal died after a shooting in his Baghdad apartment in August 2002. Palestinian sources believed he was killed on the orders of Saddam Hussein, while Iraqi officials insisted he had committed suicide during an interrogation.[12][13]
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