International Arafat promises to ‘strike with iron fist’ at guerrilla rebels

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 8

International Arafat promises to ‘strike with iron fist’ at guerrilla rebels

NZPA-Reuter

Beirut

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has strongly condemned the Cyprus guerrilla attack and pledged that his commandos would strike with an iron fist at those responsible.

Mr Arafat did not identify the culprits, but informed Palestinian sources believe the operation was directed by a renegade Palestinian leader who is under sentence of death by Fatah, the biggest commando organisation.

The sources told NZPAReuter that the two gunmen who took 11 Arab hostages and boarded a Cyprus Airways DCB after the murder of a leading Egyptian journalist in Nicosia last Saturday apparently belonged to a radical Iraqi-backed group led by Abu Nidal, a former Fatah representative in Bagdad.

Abu Nidal was sentenced to death in absentia on October 26, 1974, for carrying out guerrilla attacks in defiance of orders from the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He is said to head a small organisation called “Black June,” named after the month in 1976 in which Syria, an adversary of Nidal’s backers, Iraq, sent troops to Lebanon to end the civil war there.

The Beirut daily “AsSafar,” normally well informed on guerrilla activities, has reported that the gunmen confessed they were sent on their deadly mission by Abu Nidal.

The sources said that when Fatah found out who was behind the operation, it sent- 16 specially-trained commandos to Cyprus, but they arrived too late to take any action.

The Palestinian strike force was delayed in Beirut because the Lebanese authorities refused to allow

them to take their automatic weapons on board a plane sent from Cyprus, they added. Mr Arafat’s statement was contained in a condolence cable to the Afro-Asian conference which has been meeting in Nicosia when its longtime secretary-general, Yousef Sebai was shot dead. Mr Sebai, aged 60, was editor of the semi-official Cairo newspaper, “Al-Ahram,” and a close friend of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt.

Mr Arafat said the attack had been a cowardly operation designed to strike at peoples’, liberation movements and to discredit the Palestinian revolution. “I would like to assure you that the P.L.O. will not hestitate to strike with an iron fist at the perpetrators of such despicable acts and those who are behind them,” he said. The sources said the gunmen had planned to assassinate two senior Palestinian leaders who had been scheduled to attend the Cyprus conference, of the Cairo-based Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation.

Before the attack, they had asked where to find Khaled Fahoum, speaker of the Palestine National Council (Parliament) and Abdullah Houarani of the P.L.O. information department. It was not immediately known why neither man had not attended the conference, or whether Mr Sibai had been selected as a last-min-ute victim in their place.

Led by President Sadat, Egypt was yesterday mourning tire 15 Egyptian commandos killed in the attempt to storm the hijacked aircraft after it arrived back at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. Mr Sadat and his Cabinet, generals and senior officials were among thousands of people expected to march in the funeral procession for the men, who will be buried with full military honours. The commandos died in a battle with the Cypriot National Guard which has brought relations between Egypt and Cyprus close to breaking point. Egypt has said it is withdrawing its diplomatic mission from Cyprus and has ordered Cypriot diplomats in Egypt to leave, although the Cypriot Ambassador (Mr Antis Soteriades) has told NZPA-Reuter he has not yet received formal notification of this.

Cyprus has accused Egypt of violating its sovereignty in trying to attack the plane, while Cairo has countercharged that Cyprus was fully informed about the commando raid. “Al-Ahram” said yesterday the commandos waited 90 minutes on the ground at Larnaca before going into action. They tried to storm the aircraft only after “it had been ascertained that the Cypriot authorities, apparently under pressure of a third party, had decided to release the two terrorists after giving them passports to leave Cyprus,” “AlAhram”