Abu Nidal (Sabri al-Banna) was regarded as the most dangerous of the Palestinian political leaders.[1] Abu Nidal, whose pseudonym means "father of struggle" (Abu meaning father and Nidal, a secular term, meaning "struggle" or "effort" in Arabic) was primarily active in the 1970s and 1980s in the left-wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization and later the secular/rejectionist front, and was accused by Western and Arab sources of acting as a mercenary for various Arab governments. Most of its targets were Arab politicians, rivals, and activists they felt were soft on the Israeli issue, but Jews, as well as political representatives of Western nations were also targets, especially those involved in the peace process in the Middle East. Notably, ANO enacted a drastically violent policy towards its own members – executing some 600 members and their families in 1987.
List of attacks attributed to Abu Nidal
The following list has been compiled from a variety of sources. It is not complete and may contain errors. Some of these attacks have been claimed by several groups, some of them by no group, and others may have been falsely claimed by or attributed to Abu Nidal's organization. Especially noteworthy attacks have been marked in bold type.
September 8, 1974: Bombing of TWA Flight 841. All 79 passengers died.
October 1974: Aborted assassination attempt on Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. Following this he is sentenced to death in absentia by the PLO council. It is at this point that he founds the independent Abu Nidal Organisation.[2]
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1976
September 27, 1976: Attack and takeover of the Semiramis Hotel, Damascus, Syria. Three of the captured attackers were hanged in public the next day.[3] The attack left five people dead, including the leader of the group and four hostages. Another 34 hostages were wounded after a seven-hour shootout.[4]
October 11, 1976: Attacks on the Syrian embassies in Islamabad and Rome, leaving one dead and two injured.[5][6]
November 17, 1976: ANO fighters stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan, taking several hostages. The hotel was stormed in turn by Jordanian security forces, and three gunmen, two soldiers and two civilians were killed. The remaining attackers were executed shortly afterwards.[7]
December 1, 1976: Syrian foreign minister Abdul Halim Khaddam was shot and wounded in an attack on his car in Damascus.[8][9]
December 13, 1976: Foiled attack on the Syrian embassy in Istanbul.
February 18, 1978: Egyptian journalist Yusuf Sibai was killed whilst acting as president of the Conference of the Organization for the Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
1978: Assassination of PLO representative in Brussels, Belgium.
June 15, 1978: Assassination of Ali Yassin, PLO representative in Kuwait.
August 3, 1978:Ezzedine Kalak, PLO representative to Paris, was assassinated along with an assistant.[10][11]
August 5, 1978: PLO offices in Islamabad were raided by ANO militants, leaving four dead and an unknown number of wounded.[12][13]
1978: Assassination of PLO representative in Rome, Italy.
1978: Assassination of PLO representative in Madrid, Spain.
1979
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January 17, 1980: Yussouf Mubarak, director of the Palestinian library-shop, was assassinated in Paris, France.[10][14]
January 19, 1980: Hamdan al-Id, member of Fatah, was shot dead in Beirut.[15]
March 3, 1980: Adolfo Cotelo Villareal, lawyer and businessman, was killed by Said Ali Salman in Madrid after being mistakenly confused for Max Mazin, a businessman who was seen as a representative of capitalism and Zionism.[16][17]
April 1980: In Budapest, a grenade was thrown into a car in which Abu Daoud and Abu Iyad, two high-ranking members of Fatah (and the PLO), were sitting. Both of them survived. The assassination attempt is later traced to the Abu Nidal Organization.[18]
July 27, 1980:1980 Antwerp summer camp attack. Carried out with two hand grenades by Abu Nidal operative Said Al Nasr on group of Jewish children waiting with their families for a summer camp bus in Antwerp, Belgium. A 15-year-old bystander was killed and eight others seriously injured.
July 27, 1980: ANO claimed responsibility for the murder of an Israeli commercial attaché in Brussels.
1981
February 6, 1981: Hisham Muheissen, the Jordanian charge d'affairs in Beirut was kidnapped and three of his bodyguards killed by unidentified attackers, later believed to be ANO. Mulheissen was released unharmed 67 days later.[19]
May 1, 1981: Assassination of councilman Heinz Nittel in Vienna, Austria. Nittel was President of the Austrian-Israeli Friendship Association and had been involved in the peace process in Israel.[20][21]
June 1, 1981: Killing of Naim Khader, the PLO representative in Belgium.
August 1, 1981: Fatah chief Abu Daoud was shot multiple times in the Victoria Intercontinental Hotel in Warsaw, Poland but survived. He later claimed the attempted assassination was carried out by a Palestinian double agent recruited by the Mossad. According to Polish sources, the suspected perpetrator was a person known as Daher Hussein. Samir Hassan Najmadeen, who was Abu Nidal's "accountant", was suspected of taking part in the operation.[18][22][23]
August 1, 1981: A series of bombings damaged several French banks and businesses, the Air France office and the Saudi embassy in Beirut, though nobody was seriously hurt.[24][25]
August 29, 1981:1981 Vienna synagogue attack: Two men attacked a Vienna synagogue with machine guns. Two civilians were killed and 23 wounded, including three policemen. The attackers were arrested and imprisoned.[26]
September 4, 1981: The French ambassador to Lebanon, Louis Delamare, was assassinated in Beirut in a bungled kidnap attempt.[27]
September 23, 1981: Five Greek Cypriots were injured in a grenade attack on shipping offices in Limassol.[28]
October 6, 1981: PLO officer Majed Abu Sharar was assassinated by a bomb hidden in his hotel room in Rome, Italy. ANO claimed he was compromising the principles of the revolution.[29][30]
November 7, 1981: A kidnap attempt on a Saudi diplomat was foiled in Beirut.[31]
1982
Art deco façade of an old store. The site was accommodating the former Jewish delicatessen "Chez Jo Goldenberg", where an attack occurred on August 9, 1982, carried out by Abu Nidal Organization.
June 3, 1982: Attempted assassination in London of Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Israeli government blamed the PLO for the attack, and this was one of the incidents which provoked a large-scale invasion of Lebanon on June 6. Argov was permanently disabled and died of his injuries 21 years later.[32]
August 26, 1982: Two failed assassination attempts – on the United Arab Emirates consul in Bombay and a Kuwaiti diplomat in Karachi, Pakistan.
1982: Assassination of PLO official in Madrid, Spain.
September 16, 1982: Kuwaiti diplomat Najeed Sayed al-Rafaia was assassinated in Madrid, when he was mistaken for the ambassador.
September 18, 1982: Four people were wounded when the Great Synagogue of Brussels is attacked in a "shoot and run" incident.[36]
October 9, 1982:1982 Great Synagogue of Rome attack: five elegantly dressed attackers threw at least three hand grenades and sprayed a crowd of people with submachine fire, as they were leaving the central synagogue in Rome, Italy. A 2-year-old toddler (Stefano Gaj Taché) was killed in the attack, and 37 people were injured.[37]
October 26, 1983: Jordanian ambassador to India was shot six times in an ambush in New Delhi, but survived his injuries.[41][39]
October 27, 1983: Jordanian ambassador to Italy, Taysir AlaEddin Toukan, was shot and wounded along with his driver during an ambush by two gunmen in Rome. Both men survived.[42]
November 7, 1983: Attack on the Jordanian embassy in Athens, Greece. A guard was killed.[39]
November 9, 1983: An improvised device blast in the As-Salt Street in Amman, Jordan.[43][39]
March 7, 1984: Three were killed and nine injured in the bombing of a civilian bus in Ashdod, Israel.[46]
March 24, 1984: In Amman, a bomb was found and removed at the Intercontinental Hotel, coinciding with the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Jordan.[47]
March 28, 1984: British Cultural Attache and British Council representative Kenneth Whitty was assassinated in Athens by a single gunman, coinciding with the start of a European tour of A School For Scandal, to celebrate the British Council's 50th anniversary, which opened in Athens three days later on 31 March.[2][48]
April 2, 1984: 48 people were wounded by a machine gun attack on a crowded shopping mall in Jerusalem, Israel.[49]
May 14, 1984: A bomb blast in Attica, Greece, left more than 53 people injured.[50][51]
May 24, 1984; Bomb exploded in Athens restaurant, no one is hurt.[52]
June 5, 1984: Assassination attempt on Israeli diplomat in Cairo, Egypt.
October 4, 1984: A car bomb exploded in the Israeli embassy car park in Nicosia, Cyprus. One person was hurt[53]
October 4, 1984: An Israeli intelligence agent was killed with four other people in an ambush on a Beirut street.[54]
October 26, 1984: The attempted assassination of a senior UAE diplomat in Rome, Italy, left him in a coma. A female bystander was killed.[55]
November 28, 1984: Percy Norris, British Deputy High Commissioner in Bombay, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman as he drove through traffic.[56][57]
November 29, 1984: British Airways' offices in Beirut, Lebanon, were bombed.
November 1984: Attempted assassination of Jordanian diplomat in Greece.
December 26, 1984: Bombing of the home of veteran Fatah and PLO leader Hani al-Hassan (a.k.a. Abu Tariq, Abu al-Hassan), in Amman, Jordan. ANO used the name Black September.
December 29, 1984: Assassination in Amman of former Hebron mayor and West Bank moderate Fahd Qawasma, who had previously been deported by Israel for alleged incitement to violence. ANO used the name of Black September.
1985
March 25, 1985: British journalistAlec Collett, working for the UN, was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon along with an Austrian who was soon released. On 23 April 1986, he was hanged in revenge for Operation El Dorado Canyon.[58]
1985: Attack on resort hotel in Athens, Greece. 13 wounded.
March 21, 1985: Bombing of the Royal Jordanian Airlines (ALIA) offices in Rome, Italy, under the name Black September.
March 21, 1985: Bombing of the Royal Jordanian Airlines (ALIA) offices in Athens, Greece, under the name Black September.
March 21, 1985: Bombing of the Royal Jordanian Airlines (ALIA) offices in Nicosia, Cyprus, under the name Black September.
April 3, 1985:Rocket attack on ALIA airliner taking off from Athens Airport. No casualties.
April 4, 1985: Rocket attack against Jordanian embassy in Italy.
May 1, 1985: An assassination attempt on a Kuwaiti newspaper editor Ahmed Al-Jarallah.[59]
July 1, 1985:Bombing of the British Airways office in Madrid, Spain. One person was killed, 27 wounded. Near simultaneous attack on ALIA offices nearby, with two wounded.
July 7, 1985: A yacht carrying French and Belgian Jews was hijacked off the Gaza Strip and sailed to Libya with eight civilian hostages. These people are then used as "bargaining chips" in Libyan dealings with France, and Abu Nidal dealing with Belgium, until they are all released in 1990. Abu Nidal takes responsibility for this act in November 1987 (Silco incident).[62]
July 11, 1985: Eleven people were killed and 90 injured in two large bomb explosions in cafés in Kuwait City. Amongst the dead was the target of the bombings, the head of Kuwait's investigative branch of the police. A third bomb was successfully defused.[63]
July 21, 1985: A Kuwait Airlines office was destroyed in Beirut. No one was hurt.[64]
July 22, 1985: Failed bombing of the US embassy in Egypt.
July 24, 1985: Jordanian diplomat Zayed Sati was assassinated in Istanbul, Turkey.[65]
September 16, 1985: Grenades were thrown into a popular tourist attraction, the Cafe de Paris in Rome, Italy, wounding 38 people.[66]
November 1985:Hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 648 at Malta. Resolved after Egyptiancommandos stormed the plane, slaying 1 of the 3 hijackers, one of which had been killed in an in-flight shootout with a sky marshal, although 58 of the 91 passengers died.
October 7, 1985: Eleven people were injured by a bomb which exploded in a residential building in Jerusalem.[67]
November 20, 1985: Two Palestinians were assassinated in Jordan by ANO because they were apparently associated with Yasser Arafat.[68]
December 19, 1985: A courtroom in Nantes, France was held hostage by a gunman for several hours in a symbolic protest. No one was hurt. [1]
December 27, 1985:Attacks on Israeli El Al airport counters in Rome and Vienna. 18 dead, 111 wounded.
September 6, 1986: Gunmen stormed the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey during the Sabbath. They shot 22 people dead and set fire to the building before being killed in the (possibly deliberate) detonation of a grenade.[73]
November 5, 1986: Rockets hit the Romanian embassies in Bahrain and Lebanon in protest at the Romanian support for the peace process. No one was hurt.[75][76]
1987
January 19, 1987: Two Israeli youths were non-fatally stabbed in Jerusalem, apparently after stumbling upon some ANO operatives by accident.[77]
March 5, 1987: Two Palestinian men were abducted and hanged in Turkey on unproven "charges" of being Jordanian secret agents.[78]
February 5, 1988 Two Scandinavian aid workers were kidnapped in Beirut and released a month later.[79]
March 23, 1988: A man fired on a bus in Bombay, India, which was carrying an Alitalia flight crew. One person wounded. Two days later, grenades were discovered and removed from the Saudi Arabian consulate in the city.[80][81]
May 15, 1988: Simultaneous gun and grenade attacks on the Acropole Hotel and the Sudan Club in Khartoum aimed at Western diplomats and their families. Four Britons, three Americans and two Sudanese killed, 21 people wounded.[82]
May 11, 1988: A large truck bomb explodes close to the Israeli embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus. The driver is one of the three people killed, apparently when an accomplice remotely detonated the device early. 19 people were injured.[83]
July 11, 1988: A car bomb explodes prematurely at a pier in Athens, killing two ANO members. This is followed by an attack on the cruise shipCity of Poros, which leaves nine dead and 98 wounded.
August 20, 1988: 25 people are injured in a hand grenade explosion at a shopping centre in Haifa, Israel.[84]
November 17, 1988: A Swiss Red Cross worker was kidnapped in Sidon, Lebanon, and held for a month before being released unharmed.[85][86]
1989
January 4, 1989: A Saudi diplomat, Salah Al-Maliki, was killed and another man injured near the embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.[87]
July 25, 1990: A prominent member of the Israeli community in Lima, Peru was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.[92]
October 12, 1990: The Parliamentary Speaker Rifaat Mahjoub was shot and killed, along four civilians in Cairo. Egyptian and Iraqi backed ANO forces believed responsible.[93][94] In August 1993, 24 fundamentalist, among whom were the alleged perpetrators of the murder of Rifaat Mahjoub.[95]
1991
January 14, 1991: Assassination in Tunis of Abu Iyad, a top-ranking Fatah leader, who was Arafat's closest aide and the PLO's second-in-command. Also killed is the PLO Western (Israel) sector commander Hayel Abdul Hamid and operations head Fakhri Al Omari.[96]
October 29, 1991: Suspected ANO militants attack with rockets the US embassy in Beirut. The attack only caused material damages.[97][98]
1992
June 8, 1992:PLO officer Atef Bseiso was assassinated in Paris. An anonymous caller claiming to represent the ANO claimed credit, but the PLO and French intelligence services accused Mossad.[99]
June 30, 1992: Four PLO fighters were assassinated in a co-ordinated ambush in Sidon, Lebanon. One of the dead was Anwar Madi, PLO commander in Southern Lebanon.[100] The ANO kept attacked PLO positions in Lebanon.[101][102][103]
October 17, 1992: Mohammad Houedi a local commander of the PLO were shot dead in Tyre, Lebanon, by suspect ANO militants[104][105] Three days later the lieutenant of the PLO Mohammed al-Attal was killed.[106]
1993
November 15, 1993: A PLO official was assassinated in Sidon, Lebanon.[107]
1994
January 29, 1994: Assassination of Naeb Imran Maaytah, Jordanian diplomat, on a Beirut street. Jordanian authorities hinted that the ANO conducted this attack on behalf of Libya.[108][109]
1997
1997: Killing of two ANO/Fatah-RC members in Lebanon over accusations of embezzlement.
1997: Accused of assassinating Egyptian Islamist Sheikh Moutaleb in Yemen.
1998
October 5, 1998: A member of the ANO attacked a synagogue in Baghdad with an improvised device, killing ten Iraqi Jews.[110][111]
References
Melman, Yossi. The Master Terrorist: The true story behind Abu Nidal, 1986
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