- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Veteran
Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Abbas, who masterminded the 1985 hijacking
of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, has been captured by U.S. special forces
in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
-
- U.S. Central Command, which is overseeing the war in
Iraq, said in a statement that Abbas was picked up in a raid in southern
Baghdad on Monday evening.
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- It said his capture "removes a portion of the terror
network supported by Iraq and represents yet another victory in the global
war on terrorism," although Abbas has long renounced violence and
Israel has allowed him to travel to Gaza.
-
- Asked what would happen to Abbas now, Central Command
spokesman Maj. Brad Bartelt said: "Justice will be served." He
gave no further details.
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- Abbas, also known as Mohammed Abbas, was sentenced in
absentia in Italy to life in prison for planning the hijacking of the Italian
cruise ship in the eastern Mediterranean.
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- The hijackers killed a disabled elderly American Jewish
passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, shooting him and pushing his wheelchair over
the side of the ship.
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- Abbas, who is now in his mid-50s, has spent much of the
last 17 years in Iraq. He has traveled in the Middle East and stayed for
some time in Gaza with the permission of the Israelis.
-
- Although he had been the target of a manhunt after the
Achille Lauro incident, the United States dropped a warrant for his arrest
several years ago.
-
- A hero of battle to Palestinians and the incarnation
of evil to Israelis, Abbas became portly in middle age, his hair gray after
decades as a fugitive.
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- While he was not on board the Achille Lauro, Italian
courts sentenced Abbas in absentia to five life terms for planning the
operation.
-
- In a 1998 interview with Reuters, he called the ship
hijack a "mistake" and said the PLF mission had been to use the
ship as transportation to Israel for an attack on a naval base.
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- "The ship was only a means of transport like any
other means we used to reach our goal," Abbas said.
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- The Israeli Supreme Court declared Abbas immune from
prosecution in Israel over the Achille Lauro in 1999 after he was allowed
to return to Gaza by an Israeli Security Committee which had concluded
that he had renounced violence.
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- There were reports in January that he was in Egypt to
take part in talks to end Palestinian attacks on civilians in Israel, but
Egyptian authorities denied he was in the country.
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- "THE WHOLE WORLD IS CHASING YOU"
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- Abbas, who is married, was born in Haifa. He moved to
Syria and studied Arabic literature and English at Damascus University.
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- He joined the PLF in 1965 and after it splintered over
the years, retained control of the main pro-Arafat wing.
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- His PLF operated under the umbrella of Yasser Arafat's
Palestinian Liberation Organization and he used imaginative methods, including
hang-gliders, to penetrate Israeli defenses.
-
- "I've been chased by the world now for 20 years.
When America is chasing you, the whole world is chasing you," Abbas
said in the 1998 Reuters interview at his office in the Palestinian-ruled
Gaza.
-
- The Central Command statement said one of the key objectives
of the war in Iraq had been to "search for, capture and drive out
terrorists who have found safe haven in Iraq."
-
- It added: "This mission success highlights the U.S.
and our coalition partners' commitment to defeating terrorism worldwide."
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- Late last year, in an interview with the New York Times,
Abbas distanced himself from Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and condemned
the Sept. 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington.
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- While an active Palestinian resistance fighter two decades
ago, however, he had declared the United States a legitimate target.
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- In a 1986 interview with NBC he warned Americans the
PLF would start hitting targets in the United States, saying that then
President Ronald Reagan had replaced Israel as the Palestinians' number
one enemy.
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- "In the beginning our operations were only targetted
at the Israeli enemy in Israel," he said. "America is now conducting
the war against us on behalf of Israel. We therefore have to respond against
America in America itself."
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