arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

The exact circumstances of his death are still unclear as of this time.

Some Palestinian sources opined that Abu Nidal had shot himself because he was suffering from cancer and addicted to painkillers.

However, the Iraq's deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told reporters in Baghdad on Tuesday that the man had committed suicide after Iraqi security agents confronted him with damning evidence of his collusion with Iraqi opposition figures based in Damascus.

Iraqi sources said Abu Nidal had sneaked into Iraq from Iran last year on a forged passport but the authorities soon discovered his presence and placed him under house arrest.

The sources added that he later was caught contacting "external parties" conspiring against Iraq.

This account suggests that Abu Nidal is likely to have been executed by his Iraqi hosts rather than having committed suicide.

Since his death, first reported on 17 August, there has been a plethora of speculations on the circumstances of his death.

Some reports quoted an aide of Abu Nidal, who has fled to Amman, as saying that the 65-year-old man was killed not by the Iraqis but by a disgruntled aide who accused him of embezzling four million dollars.

Abu Nidal was born in Jaffa, Palestine, in 1939, and in 1948, he became a refugee, like the bulk of the Palestinian Arab population who were driven out of their homeland by Jewish terrorist gangs.

The young Sabri al Banna lived a miserable life first in Gaza Strip before moving on to Nablus in the West Bank.

In the late 1950s, he joined the Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party, and in 1969 he joined The Fatah movement, founded and led by Yasser Arafat who in the early 1970s appointed him PLO representative in Khartoum, Sudan. Four years later, he was re-appointed as PLO representative in Baghdad.

There, Abu Nidal, with active assistance from the Iraqi intelligence, built a power base of his own and in 1974 broke up with Fatah and found a new organization which he called "Fatah, the Revolutionary Council (FRC)."

Abu Nidal became a sworn enemy of PLO leader Yasser Arafat and, according to Palestinian sources, his group tried, at least twice, to assassinate Arafat, prompting a PLO court in Lebanon in 1974 to sentence him to death.

Abu Nidal came to view the leaders of Fatah, particularly Arafat and his loyal men, as too conciliatory and who ought to be liquidated.

Hence, his group began a murderous campaign of assassination and bombing targeting moderate Fatah leaders and Arafat loyalists who advocated a peaceful settlement with Israel based on the two-state solution.

The following list of Fatah leaders the FRC assassinated illustrates the murderous nature of this group:

January 4, 1978: Assassination of the PLO representative in London Said Hamami after he made remarks supporting peace with Israel.

August 3, 1978: Assassination of the PLO representative in Paris, Izzidin al Qalaq.

January 17, 1980: Assassination of Yousuf Mubarak, director of the Palestinian Library-shop in Paris.

June 1, 1981: Assassination of Naim Khader, the PLO representative in Brussels.

April 10, 1983: Assassination of PLO official Isam Sartawi at the Socialist International conference in Lisbon.

January 14, 1991: Assassination of the number-2 man in the PLO, Salah Khalaf (Abu Eyad).

In addition to Fatah, Abu Nidal also targeted Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Saudi and UAE diplomats in Europe.

In February 18, 1978: The FRC assassinated Yousuf Al-Sebai, prominent writer and journalist, President of the Organization for the Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and North America in Athens.

In November 23, 1985: The FRC hijacked an Egyptian plane to Malta, killing sixty six people and injuring scores others.

Moreover, several Jordanian diplomats were killed by the Abu Nidal group between the years 1978-1990.

Palestinian reactions:

There was a modicum of indifference to the death of Abu Nidal among most Palestinians.

The PA was generally circumspect in its reactions to the death of Abu Nidal, suggesting a degree of satisfaction.

Fatah official Abbas Zaki, who knew Abu Nidal personally, said the notorious guerilla commander "defamed and besmirched our struggle" and "aimed his guns at our people and leaders rather than at the enemy."

This view seems to be generally shared by most Palestinians.

With Abu Nidal's death, it is likely that the FRC will vanish into oblivion and eventual demise for two reasons:

First, the man and his group had become a liability rather than an asset for any state willing to host and support him, including Iraq, which is facing the threat of an American invasion over terrorism charges.

Second: Most Palestinians and Arabs have come to view Abu Nidal's ways as anachronistic and counter-productive, leaving little or no room for the group to survive much less to thrive.