The Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal told aides that his Fatah Revolutionary Council was responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland a top former aide said.
He then threatened to kill anyone who revealed this information.
Now that Nidal is dead Ñ killed last week in Baghdad Ñ Atef Abu Bakr, who was said to have been Abu Nidal's closest aide from 1985 until
1989, has linked his former boss to a series of attacks.
"I have very important and serious things to say," Abu Bakr quoted Abu
Nidal as telling his Fatah Revolutionary Council. "The reports that
attribute Lockerbie to others are lies. We are behind it. If any one of you
lets this out, I will kill him even if he is in his wife's arms."
In a series of interviews with the London-based Al Hayat daily
last week, Abu Bakr quoted Sabri Al Bana, known as Abu Nidal, as claiming responsibility for the
blast in which 270 people were killed according to Middle East Newsline. Libya has been identified as
masterminding the attack.
Abu Nidal was killed on Aug. 15 in Baghdad.
[On Sunday, the London-based Sunday Telegraph reported that Abu Nidal
was killed after he refused a demand by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to
help train Al Qaida agents in northern Iraq. The newspaper quoted Western
diplomats as saying that Saddam had also demanded that Abu Nidal launch
attacks against the United States and its allies.]
Al Hayat also said Abu Nidal was behind a foiled plot to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in
1989. The Saudi-owned newspaper reported that Abu Nidal later told his aides
that the plot was aborted to avoid a confrontation with Egypt. Arab media
sources said they believe this information stemmed from Abu Bakr as well.
Abu Bakr said Abu Nidal also tried twice to assassinate Syrian Vice
President Abdul Halim Khaddam. One attempt was said to have taken place in
1986. The following year Abu Nidal was expelled from Syria.
