Editing Abu Nidal (section)

==Operations and relationships==
{{further|List of attacks attributed to Abu Nidal}}

===Shlomo Argov===
[[File:The Dorchester, Mayfair, London, UK - 20100501.jpg|thumb|alt=photograph|[[Shlomo Argov]] was shot in the head as he left the [[Dorchester Hotel]], [[Park Lane, London|Park Lane]], London.]]
On 3 June 1982, ANO operative Hussein Ghassan Said shot [[Shlomo Argov]], the Israeli ambassador to Britain, once in the head as he left the [[The Dorchester|Dorchester Hotel]] in London. Said was accompanied by Nawaf al-Rosan, an Iraqi intelligence officer, and Marwan al-Banna, Abu Nidal's cousin. Argov survived, but spent three months in a coma and the rest of his life disabled, until his death in February 2003.<ref>{{cite web |author=Joffe, Lawrence |date=25 February 2003 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon |title=Shlomo Argov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826225626/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon |archive-date=26 August 2013 |work=The Guardian |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> The PLO quickly denied responsibility for the attack.<ref>[[Helena Cobban|Cobban, Helena]] (1984). ''The Palestinian Liberation Organisation''. Cambridge University Press, 120.</ref>

[[Ariel Sharon]], then Israel's defence minister, responded three days later by [[1982 Lebanon War|invading Lebanon]], where the PLO was based, a reaction that Seale argues Abu Nidal had intended: the Israeli government had been preparing to invade and Abu Nidal provided a pretext.<ref name=Seale1992pp223-224>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=223-224}}</ref> ''Der Spiegel'' put it to him in October 1985 that the assassination of Argov, when he knew Israel wanted to attack the PLO in Lebanon, made him appear to be working for the Israelis, in the view of Yasser Arafat.<ref name=Melman1987p120>{{harvnb|Melman|1987|p=120}}</ref> Abu Nidal replied:<ref name="Melman1987p120" />

{{Blockquote|text=What Arafat says about me doesn't bother me. Not only he, but also a whole list of Arab and world politicians claim that I am an agent of the Zionists or the CIA. Others state that I am a mercenary of the French secret service and of the Soviet KGB. The latest rumor is that I am an agent of Khomeini. During a certain period they said we were spies for the Iraqi regime. Now they say that we are Syrian agents ... Many psychologists and sociologists in the Soviet bloc tried to investigate this man Abu Nidal. They wanted to find a weak point in his character. The result was zero.}}

===Rome and Vienna===
{{main|Rome and Vienna airport attacks}}
Abu Nidal's most infamous operation was the 1985 attack on the Rome and Vienna airports.<ref name=Seale1992p246>Seale 1992, 246.</ref> On 27 December, at 08:15 [[Greenwich Mean Time|GMT]], four gunmen opened fire on the [[El Al]] ticket counter at the [[Rome Fiumicino Airport|Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport]] in Rome, killing 16 and wounding 99. In the [[Vienna International Airport]] a few minutes later, three men threw hand grenades at passengers who were waiting to check into a flight to Tel Aviv, killing 4 and wounding 39.<ref name="Suro132Feb1988">{{cite web |author=Suro, Roberto |date=13 February 1988 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/13/world/palestinian-gets-30-years-for-rome-airport-attack.html |title=Palestinian Gets 30 Years for Rome Airport Attack |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101131800/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/13/world/palestinian-gets-30-years-for-rome-airport-attack.html|archive-date=1 November 2023 |work=The New York Times |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/27/newsid_2545000/2545949.stm |title=Gunmen kill 16 at two European airports |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230054242/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/27/newsid_2545000/2545949.stm |archive-date=30 December 2008 |work=BBC News |date=27 December 1985 |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> The gunmen had been told the people in civilian clothes at the check-in counter were Israeli pilots returning from a training mission.<ref name=Seale1992p244>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=244}}</ref>

Austria and Italy had both been involved in trying to arrange peace talks. Sources close to Abu Nidal told Seale that Libyan intelligence had supplied the weapons. The damage to the PLO was enormous, according to [[Salah Khalaf|Abu Iyad]], Arafat's deputy. Most people in the West, and even many Arabs, could not distinguish between the ANO and Fatah, he said. "When such horrible things take place, ordinary people are left thinking that all Palestinians are criminals."<ref name=Seale1992p245>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=245}}</ref>

[[Patrick Seale]], Abu Nidal's biographer, wrote of the shootings that their "random cruelty marked them as typical Abu Nidal operations".<ref>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=243}}</ref><ref name="Suro132Feb1988" />

===United States bombing of Libya===
{{main|1986 United States bombing of Libya}}
[[File:USF-111 Libya1986.JPG|thumb|alt=photograph|48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft takes off from [[RAF Lakenheath]] in England to bomb Libya, 14 April 1986.]]
On 15 April 1986, the US launched bombing raids from British bases against [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] and [[Benghazi]], killing around 100, in retaliation for the bombing of a [[West Berlin discotheque bombing|Berlin nightclub]] frequented by US service personnel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.stm |title=US launches air strikes on Libya |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720121141/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.stm |archive-date=20 July 2011 |work=BBC News |date=15 April 1986 |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Malinarich, Natalie |date=13 November 2001 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1653848.stm |title=The Berlin Disco Bombing |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831121716/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1653848.stm |archive-date=31 August 2017 |work=BBC News |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> The dead were reported to include Hanna Gaddafi, the adoptive daughter of Libyan leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]]; two of his other children were injured.<ref>{{harvnb|Melman|1987|p=162}}</ref> British journalist Alec Collett, who had been kidnapped in Beirut in March, was hanged after the airstrikes, reportedly by ANO operatives; his remains were found in the [[Beqaa Valley]] in November 2009.<ref>{{cite web |author=Pidd, Helen |date=23 November 2009 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/23/alec-collett-remains-found-lebanon |title=Remains of British journalist Alec Collett found in Lebanon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306031558/http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/23/alec-collett-remains-found-lebanon |archive-date=6 March 2016 |work=The Guardian |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> The bodies of two British teachers, Leigh Douglas and Philip Padfield, and an American, Peter Kilburn, were found in a village near Beirut on 17 April 1986; the Arab Fedayeen Cells, a name linked to Abu Nidal, claimed responsibility.<ref>{{harvnb|Kushner|2002|p=204}}</ref> British journalist [[John McCarthy (journalist)|John McCarthy]] was kidnapped the same day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/newsid_4693000/4693188.stm |title=British journalist McCarthy kidnapped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110418094520/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/newsid_4693000/4693188.stm |archive-date=18 April 2011 |work=BBC |date=17 April 1986 |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref>

===Hindawi affair===
{{main|Hindawi affair}}
On 17 April 1986—the day the teachers' bodies were found and McCarthy was kidnapped—Ann Marie Murphy, a pregnant Irish chambermaid, was discovered in [[Heathrow Airport|Heathrow airport]] with a [[Semtex]] bomb in the false bottom of one of her bags. She had been about to board an El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv via London. The bag had been packed by her Jordanian fiancé [[Hindawi affair|Nizar Hindawi]], who had said he would join her in Israel where they were to be married.<ref>{{harvnb|Melman|1987|p=170–174}}</ref> According to Melman, Abu Nidal had recommended Hindawi to Syrian intelligence.<ref>{{harvnb|Melman|1987|p=171}}</ref> The bomb had been manufactured by Abu Nidal's technical committee, who had delivered it to Syrian air force intelligence. It was sent to London in a diplomatic bag and given to Hindawi. According to Seale, it was widely believed that the attack was in response to Israel having forced down a jet, two months earlier, carrying Syrian officials to Damascus, which Israel had supposed was carrying senior Palestinians.<ref>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=248}}</ref>

===Pan Am Flight 73===
{{main|Pan Am Flight 73}}
On 5 September 1986, four ANO gunmen hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 at [[Jinnah International Airport|Karachi Airport]] on its way from Mumbai to New York, holding 389 passengers and crew for 16 hours in the plane on the tarmac before detonating grenades inside the cabin. [[Neerja Bhanot]], the flight's senior purser, was able to open an emergency door, and most passengers escaped. Twenty died, including Bhanot, and 120 were wounded.<ref>{{harvnb|Melman|1987|p=190}}; {{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=252-254}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Rajghatta, Chidanand |date=17 January 2010 |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/24-yrs-after-Pan-Am-hijack-Neerja-Bhanot-killer-falls-to-drone/articleshow/5454295.cms |title=24 yrs after Pan Am hijack, Neerja Bhanot killer falls to drone |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505223925/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/24-yrs-after-Pan-Am-hijack-Neerja-Bhanot-killer-falls-to-drone/articleshow/5454295.cms |archive-date=5 May 2014 |work=The Times of India |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> The London ''Times'' reported in March 2004 that Libya had been behind the hijacking.<ref>{{cite web |author=[[Jon Swain|Swain, Jon]] |date=28 March 2004 |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1052614.ece |title=Revealed: Gaddafi's air massacre plot |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523234457/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1052614.ece |archive-date=23 May 2011 |work=The Times}}</ref>

===Relationship with Gaddafi===
[[File:Muammar al-Gaddafi-09122003.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=photograph|[[Muammar Gaddafi]]]]
Abu Nidal began to move his organization out of Syria to Libya in the summer of 1986,<ref name=Seale1992p255/> arriving there in March 1987. In June that year, the Syrian government expelled him, in part because of the Hindawi affair and Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking.<ref>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=257}}</ref> He repeatedly took credit during this period for operations in which he had no involvement, including the 1984 [[Brighton hotel bombing]], 1985 [[Bradford City stadium fire]], and 1986 assassination of [[Zafer al-Masri]], the mayor of Nablus (killed by the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine|PFLP]], according to Seale). By publishing a congratulatory note in the ANO's magazine, he also implied that he had been behind the 1986 [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster]].<ref name=Seale1992p254>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=254}}</ref>

Abu Nidal and Libya's leader, [[Muammar Gaddafi]], allegedly became great friends, each holding what [[Marie Colvin]] and Sonya Murad called a "dangerous combination of an inferiority complex mixed with the belief that he was a man of great destiny". The relationship gave Abu Nidal a sponsor and Gaddafi a mercenary.<ref name=ColvinMurad2002>[[Marie Colvin|Colvin, Marie]] and Murad, Sonya (25 August 2002). "Executed," ''The Sunday Times''.</ref> Libya brought out the worst in Abu Nidal. He would not allow even the most senior ANO members to socialize with each other; all meetings had to be reported to him. All passports had to be handed over. No one was allowed to travel without his permission. Ordinary members were not allowed to have telephones; senior members were allowed to make local calls only.<ref>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=258–259}}</ref> His members knew nothing about his daily life, including where he lived. If he wanted to entertain, he would take over the home of another member.<ref>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=258–260}}</ref>

According to Abu Bakr, speaking to {{Transliteration|ar|Al Hayat}} in 2002, Abu Nidal said he was behind the bombing of [[Pan Am Flight 103]], which exploded over [[Lockerbie]], Scotland, on 21 December 1988; a former head of security for [[Libyan Airlines|Libyan Arab Airlines]] was later convicted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2211327.stm |title=Abu Nidal 'behind Lockerbie bombing' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013133622/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2211327.stm |archive-date=13 October 2011 |work=BBC News |date=23 August 2002 |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> Abu Nidal reportedly said of Lockerbie, "We do have some involvement in this matter, but if anyone so much as mentions it, I will kill him with my own hands!" Seale writes that the ANO appeared to have no connection to it. One of Abu Nidal's associates told him, "If an American soldier tripped in some corner of the globe, Abu Nidal would instantly claim it as his own work."<ref name=Seale1992p255>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=255}}</ref>

===Banking with BCCI===
In the late 1980s, British intelligence learned that the ANO held accounts with the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) in London.<ref name=Walsh2004>{{cite web |author=Walsh, Conal |date=18 January 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040818181959/http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,11268,1125478,00.html |archive-date=2004-08-18 |url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0%2C11268%2C1125478%2C00.html |title=What spooks told Old Lady about BCCI |work=[[The Observer]]}}</ref> In July 1991, BCCI was closed by banking regulators in six countries after evidence emerged of widespread fraud.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Fritz, Sarah |author2=Bates, James |date=11 July 1991 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-11-mn-2869-story.html |title=BCCI Case May Be History's Biggest Bank Fraud Scandal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021143223/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-11/news/mn-2869_1_independence-bank |archive-date=21 October 2014 |work=Los Angeles Times |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2024}}</ref> Abu Nidal himself was said to have visited London using the name Shakar Farhan; a BCCI branch manager, who passed information about the ANO accounts to [[MI5]], reportedly drove him around several stores in London without realizing who he was.<ref>{{harvnb|Adams|Frantz|1992|p=90}}</ref> Abu Nidal was using a company called SAS International Trading and Investments in Warsaw as cover for arms deals.<ref>{{harvnb|Adams|Frantz|1992|p=136}}</ref> The company's transactions included the purchase of riot guns, ostensibly for Syria, then when the British refused an export license to Syria, for an African state; in fact, half the shipment went to the police in [[East Germany]] and half to Abu Nidal.<ref>{{harvnb|Adams|Frantz|1992|p=91}}</ref>

===Assassination of Abu Iyad===
On 14 January 1991 in Tunis, the night before US forces moved into Kuwait, the ANO assassinated [[Salah Khalaf|Abu Iyad]], head of PLO intelligence, along with Abu al-Hol, Fatah's chief of security, and [[Fakhri Al Omari]], another Fatah aide; all three men were shot in Abu al-Hol's home. The killer, Hamza Abu Zaid, confessed that an ANO operative had hired him. When he shot Abu Iyad, he reportedly shouted, "Let Atef Abu Bakr help you now!", a reference to the senior ANO member who had left the group in 1989, and whom Abu Nidal believed Abu Iyad had planted within the ANO as a spy.<ref>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=32, 34, 312}}</ref> Abu Iyad had known that Abu Nidal nursed a hatred of him, in part because he had kept Abu Nidal out of the PLO. However, the real reason for the hatred, Abu Iyad told Seale, was that he had protected Abu Nidal in his early years within the movement. Given his personality, Abu Nidal could not acknowledge that debt. The murder "must therefore be seen as a final settlement of old scores".<ref name=Seale1992p312>{{harvnb|Seale|1992|p=312–313}}</ref>