Abu Nidal Killed Himself with One Bullet: Iraqi Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 22, 2002

Abu Nidal Killed Himself with One Bullet: Iraqi Official

Radical Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal shot himself dead with only one bullet in the mouth when he was confronted by Iraqi security men over his illegal staying in the country, Iraq's intelligence services chief said on Wednesday.

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Radical Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal shot himself dead in the mouth with only one bullet when he was confronted by Iraqi security men over his illegal staying in the country, Iraq's intelligence services chief said on Wednesday.

"He welcomed the idea (of going with the security men for interrogation) and asked to change his clothes. He entered a room and locked it. Then we heard the gunshot," Taher Jaleel al-Haboush told a news conference, dismissing news reports that Abu Nidal had been found dead from several gunshot wounds.

"He had fired a shot into his mouth and the bullet came out of his skull. He was taken to hospital but died about 8 hours later," Haboush said, without giving the exact date of his death.

Abu Nidal, leader of a Palestinian militant group called the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, entered Iraq in 1999 illegally from Iran with a forged Yemeni passport, Haboush said.

Iraqi security agents began to search for his whereabouts after receiving information that he had entered Iraq illegally. The Iraqi authorities had not discovered his hideout in Baghdad until lately, but had no time to cross-examine him before he died, he added.

The account was at variance with reports that Abu Nidal, whose real name was Nidal Sabri Al Banna, had been put under house arrest by Iraq for his involvement in a plot against the Iraqi government.

Searchs in Abu Nidal's Baghdad apartment afterwards found assault rifles, two muffler-enabled pistols and eight booby-trapped suitcases, Haboush said, showing pictures of the weapon arsenal as well as the bloody body of the Palestinian extremist.

Iraqi authorities also found coded messages in the apartment and decipherment showed that Abu Nidal had been seeking funds from a country that Haboush refused to disclose.

No companion was found at Abu Nidal's apartment and further investigation was underway, Haboush said.

On Monday, the Palestinian daily Al Ayyam reported Abu Nidal was found dead from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad's home three days ago and it appeared that he had committed a suicide. However, Palestinian officials refused to comment on the report.

Abu Nidal, 65, a well-known figure in the world of internationalterrorism, had been wanted by several countries, especially the United States and Israel.

He broke off from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement in 1974, claiming that it was too moderate, and set up his own radical organization Fatah-Revolutionary Council.

His group has been accused of being responsible for some 90 terrorist attacks and the deaths of hundreds of people, including senior officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Ithad even plotted attempts on Arafat's life.

The group carried out terrorist attacks in about 20 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Israel and various Arab countries. It was put on the list of terrorist groups by Washington in 1989.

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