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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (39303)	8/21/2002 6:12:49 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Abu Nidal is dead, ostensibly killed by Iraqis, though the claim is suicide. This is hardly safe harbor. Iraq says Abu Nidal died 8 hours after shooting himself in the mouth; Followers insist he was murdered 21-08-2002, 20:11 Haboush during the press conference Abu Nidal shot himself in the mouth as Iraqi officials waited to take him to court, the head of Iraqi intelligence said on Wednesday. Giving Iraq's first press conference on Abu Nidal, Taher Jalil Haboush said the feared Palestinian extremist had entered Iraq illegally from the Islamic republic of Iran on a false Yemeni passport. Baghdad had never admitted hosting Abu Nidal until reports of his death in the Iraqi capital emerged earlier this week. Palestinian officials in the West Bank said Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna, had been found dead in Baghdad on Friday, his body riddled with bullets. Haboush told reporters that an unidentified Arab state had informed his government in 1999 that Abu Nidal had entered Iraq. He did not give a more accurate date for Abu Nidal's entry, according to The Associated Press. He added that Iraqi officials investigated Abu Nidal's whereabouts. When they found him, a group of security officers were sent to his apartment with orders to bring him to court. Haboush did not explain why it took so long for Iraq to find Abu Nidal. When the security officers arrived at his home, Abu Nidal said he needed to go to his bedroom to change his clothes. A shot was fired, and the officers found that Abu Nidal had shot himself in the mouth, Haboush claimed. Haboush produced pictures of the bloodied and dying guerrilla, an array of forged passports and ID cards and pictures of a weapon arsenal found at Abu Nidal's apartment that included assault rifles, silencer-equipped pistols and eight booby-trapped suitcases. Abu Nidal was rushed to hospital where he died eight hours later. Haboush was asked what day Abu Nidal died, however did not reply. The Iraqi intelligence chief disclosed coded messages were also found at the apartment which showed that Abu Nidal was on the payroll of an unnamed country. Meanwhile, in a statement released in the Lebanese capital, Abu Nidal's faction, the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said its leader's death in Baghdad was "a premeditated murder, organized by the Iraqi intelligence services." His followers insisted he was in Baghdad with the "full knowledge" of the regime, and not by subterfuge as Iraqi officials insisted. "The martyr-in-chief Abu Nidal was an Arab and Palestinian VIP and entered fraternal Iraq a few years ago with the full knowledge of the relevant Iraqi authorities in accordance of agreements reached with them," the statement said. "In view of the high confidence we have in President Saddam Hussein, champion of Arab and Islamic values, we appeal to him to intervene personally and quickly to investigate the circumstances of this criminal murder, establish the truth and unmask those who ordered it," their statement said. Kuwaiti denial For its part, Kuwait firmly denied any link to Abu Nidal, amidst press reports that Baghdad had uncovered a plot involving Kuwait to strike the Iraqi regime. "Kuwait, which condemns terrorism in all its forms, rejects these accusations and affirms it does not have any ties or relationship with the Abu Nidal group," a foreign ministry spokesman said, quoted by KUNA news agency. "The information lacks any foundation and bears prejudice to Kuwait and its image," the spokesman added. A senior Iraqi official earlier told CNN's news chief Easton Jordan that Abu Nidal committed suicide in Baghdad after being confronted with evidence of his involvement in a plot with Kuwait to topple the regime. "When the Iraqi authorities recently confronted ... him with this news, he chose to commit suicide. That's the story we have just learned from a very senior official here in the Iraqi government," Jordan said. "Kuwait and others outside of Iraq were conspiring with Abu Nidal to do something against the Iraqi government here." (Albawaba.com)