LONDON Ñ Agents of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein either killed
or staged the death of Abu Nidal, Arab diplomatic and opposition sources believe.
The sources said most Arab governments remain skeptical of the official Iraqi account that Sabri Al Bana, known as Abu Nidal, committed suicide.
On Wednesday, Iraqi intelligence chief Taher Jalil Tabush told a news
conference in Baghdad that Nidal, head of the Fatah Revolutionary
Council and once one of the world's most feared terrorists, intentionally shot himself in the mouth when Iraqi agents arrived
to take him away. Tabush said Abu Nidal entered Iraq in
1999 on a forged Yemeni passport, Middle East Newsline reported.
In Beirut, Abu Nidal's organization, the radical Fatah Revolutionary Council, said its leader was assassinated by one of Iraq's intelligence agencies.
Abu Nidal fell out with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the 1970s, accusing him of being soft, and formed his Fatah Revolutionary Council.
The organization killed at least 275 people in a worldwide campaign of terror that included attacks on El Al airline ticket counters at the Rome and Vienna airports in 1985.
Palestinian sources said Saddam may have ordered the killing of Nidal as a gesture to Arafat who has organized demonstrations in support of the Iraqi dictator.
In Texas, at the ranch of U.S. President George W. Bush, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Nidal's presence in Iraq showed Baghdad's links to terror.
"The fact that only Iraq would give safe haven to Abu Nidal demonstrates the Iraqi regime's complicity with global terror," Fleischer said.
"A lot of what we're hearing about Abu Nidal is complete disinformation,"
an Arab diplomat said. "It is true Abu Nidal died. The rest is
an attempt by Saddam to gain Arab support as the United States threatens his
regime."
Diplomatic sources raised the prospect that Abu Nidal died from cancer or
committed suicide when he gave up hope of ever recovering. They said the
Saddam regime then fabricated the circumstances of his death to make it
appear as if Baghdad had foiled a major Abu Nidal attack against an Arab
ally.
The Iraqi intelligence chief said Abu Nidal, 65, was to have been
interrogated in connection to his activities financed by an unnamed country.
He said a "friendly" Arab country had alerted Baghdad to Abu Nidal's
arrival.
"We have proof against the party which financed him," Tabush told a news
conference on Wednesday. "But because of the situation we find ourselves in
facing the forces of evil, we will not unveil the name of this country at
the moment."
The Arab country Tabush was referring to appeared to be Kuwait. Arab
media reports assert that Kuwait was financing Abu Nidal to launch an attack
on the Saddam regime. Kuwait has denied the assertion.
Tabush, who heads Iraq's secret service, presented photographs which he said were of Abu Nidal after he had shot himself. The official also presented
photos of Abu Nidal's Yemeni passport.
Iraqi opposition sources said Abu Nidal was a
guest of the Iraqi regime but dismissed suggestions that he had slipped into
Baghdad.
The London-based Iraqi National Congress said in a statement that Abu
Nidal was treated for cancer by the Saddam regime. The INC said Abu Nidal
often met with an Iraqi general who has been responsible for Baghdad's
relations with groups deemed as terrorist.
Over the last day, Arab media reports have attributed a series of plots
to Abu Nidal. The London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Wednesday that Abu
Nidal had planned to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1989.
Another report said Abu Nidal had been planning a major attack when he was
killed by Iraqi agents.
