NICOSIA Ñ A Palestinian militant involved in plots to destroy an Israeli skyscraper and smuggle rockets to the Palestinian areas has been assassinated.

Jihad Jibril was killed in a car bombing in Beirut on Monday. Jibril, 40, was the son of Ahmed Jibril, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Lebanese authorities said the junior Jibril started his Peugot sedan and the vehicle blew up. Jibril was immediately killed and nobody else was injured.

Jibril was the chief of operations of the PFLP-GC. The PFLP-GC is regarded as a Syrian-led Palestinian group based in Damascus. Much of its funding comes from Iran.

The group blamed Israel and Jordan for the attack. Nobody claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Israeli military sources said the younger Jibril was involved in the attempt to bring the Karine-A freighter laden with Iranian weapons as well as other ships to the Gaza Strip. They also linked Jibril to a failed Palestinian attempt to destroy Israel's tallest skyscraper, located in Tel Aviv. The militants sent to blow up the Azriel Towers were said to have been directed and trained by the PFLP-GC.

The PFLP-GC broke away from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1968. The elder Jibril, who founded and runs the group, began as a Syrian military officer in the engineering corps. The group was regarded as being expert in the assembly of small bombs for use in aircraft.

In the wake of the assassination, the group threatened to launch revenge attacks against Israel.

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