Abu Abbas
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Image:Abbas.jpg Muhammad Zaidan (December 10, 1948 – March 8, 2004) also known as Abū ‘Abbās (Template:ArB) or Muhammad ‘Abbās was the founder and leader of paramilitary group the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF).
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Political background
Zaidan joined the radical, pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) under Ahmed Jibril in 1968. In 1977, major disagreements arose between the PFLP-GC, the PLO, and other Palestinian factions based in Lebanon. Zaidan, who opposed Syrian involvement in the Lebanese war, left the PFLP and created the PLF, which eventually split into three separate factions (and then later re-merged). Zaidan's faction of the PLF, which was the largest of the three, moved its headquarters to Tunisia.
Since its inception in 1977, the Abbas-led PLF was a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization and received support from both the PLO and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Unlike the PFLP-GC, the PLF has supported peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel. Zaidan was elected to the Executive Committee of the PLO in 1984 and represented the Palestinian National Council (PNC, the Palestinian parliament in exile) in 1989 during peace negotiations with Israel. Although Zaidan was wanted by Israel for his involvement in guerrilla attacks against Israel (including terrorist attacks on civilians) throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Israel allowed him to travel freely in the Gaza Strip throughout the 1990s because he supported the peace negotiations.
Achille Lauro hijacking
Throughout the 1980s, the PLF launched attacks on both civilian and military targets in the north of Israel, across the Lebanese border. But Abu Abbas's notoriety in the West is mostly due to his PLF faction's 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro. During the hijacking, wheelchair-bound American Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer, was shot dead and thrown overboard, which caused an international outcry and resulted in strong pressure on the PLO.
After the hijacking, under immense political pressure from the United States and Italy, Tunisia expelled Zaidan from the country. He fled to Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein sheltered him from extradition to Italy. He remained in Iraq and commanded the PLF (reunited in 1989) until Saddam was deposed by coalition forces in 2003.
Italy (whose government had previously let Abu Abbas leave the country without being arrested) sentenced Zaidan in absentia to five terms of life imprisonment for his role in the Achille Lauro hijacking. He was also wanted in the United States for crimes including terrorism, piracy, and murder. In 1996, he made an apology for the Achille Lauro hijacking and murder of Leon Klinghoffer and advocated peace talks between Palestininans and Israel; the apology was rejected by the United States government and Klinghoffer's family, who insisted he be brought to justice.
Death in custody, 2004
On April 15, 2003, Zaidan was captured by American forces in Iraq while attempting to flee from Baghdad to Syria. Italy subsequently requested his extradition. The Pentagon reported on March 9, 2004 that Zaidan had died the previous day, of natural causes, while in US custody. The PLF accused the Americans of assassinating their leader. The US authorities agreed to give Abbas' body to the Palestinian Red Crescent for burial in Ramallah on the West Bank. However, his burial there was blocked by the Israeli authorities, and he was buried in the Martyrs' Cemetery in Damascus instead.