Arabs blamed for attack

Press, 27 October 1977, Page 9

Arabs blamed for attack

NZPA-Reuter Abu Dhabi A gunman who killed a top United Arab Emirates official in an attempt to assassinate the Syrian Foreign Minister (Mr Abdel-Hahm Khaddam) is a Palestinian carrying an Iraqi passport, Abu Dhabi diplomatic sources have said. The U.A.E. Deputy Foreign Minister (Mr Seif bin Ghobash), who was 41. died yesterday in a hail of sub-machine-gun bullets aimed at Mr Khaddam in the passenger lounge at Abu Dhabi Airport. Mr Khaddam escaped by diving under a staircase. The Syrian Foreign Minister, who cut short a Gulf tour after the incident and returned home, said in Damascus later that the gunman had travelled to Abu Dhabi from Baghdad. Mr Khaddam, the target of two previous assassination attempts in the last two years, blamed an "Arab capital” for sending assassins to kill him. He did not elaborate.

The gunman, who was not identified, surrendered to an airport policeman after briefly holding nine people hostage near a Czechoslovak plane on the airport tarmac. The death of Mr Ghobash shocked the Government of the U.A.E. still recovering from the drama when a hijacked West German airliner spent three days at the airport in nearby Dubai. The U.A.E. Council of Ministers met in emergency session and pledged to take all necessary measures “against those' who try to abuse this State’s hospitality . . . by transferring their disputes and criminal ways to this land." They also ordered a week of mourning for Mr Ghobash. who leaves behind a Russian-born wife and four children. Responsibility for the attempt on the life of Mr Khaddam last December was claimed by a group calling itself “Black June” after the month of Syrian intervention last year on the side of Rightist forces in the Lebanese war.