PFLP leader's son killed in Beirut car explosion

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 5/20/2002 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[eclectic]

The son of radical Palestinian guerrilla leader Ahmed Jibril was killed Monday in a Beirut car bombing, Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla television reported.

Al-Manar, the television station of the Hezbollah guerrilla group which has close links to Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said Jibril's son, 40-year-old Jihad, died in the explosion.

It said it had received the confirmation from Jibril's headquarters in Damascus, Syria.

The blast occurred at midday on a street off the busy shopping area of Corniche Mazraa. Lebanese police officials speaking on customary condition of anonymity said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed under the driver's seat of the Peugeot sedan.

Ambulances, sirens wailing, rushed to the scene of the explosion. Police sealed off the area and opened an investigation.

The blast wrecked the car, shattering its windows and turning its front section into a twisted heap. Its white rear door had turned red with the victim's blood and flesh was scattered for a few meters around the car.

The blast also damaged neighborhood shops and parked cars but, apart from the driver, there were no other casualties.

[glaseatr]

I could care less "how or why" he died as you ask. You make the assumption he was killed. I believe that he had a "work related accident" or more to the point..He blew himself up transporting stuff he should not have been.

Good luck and good ridance to the scum bad arab.

[ecomcon]

My compliments to you for the way you have presented yourself. Not many people can admit an ill-informed comment. Well done.

[cake_crumb]

Hey! Isn't "the deceased's father" the guy who starred in The Godfather???

[cake_crumb]

"He blew himself up transporting stuff he should not have been."

...Or maybe he planted in the car to get rid of a rival in his own organization, then was in a hurry and it just slipped his mind?

HEY...it could happen!!

When you teach all of your best and brightest kids to go out and die for their god, it's gonna weed native intelligence out of the gene pool, eventually.

[BlueLancer]

"Isn't "the deceased's father" the guy who starred in The Godfather???"

Can't be ... Luca Brazi sleeps with the fishes.

[sakic]

could it be that his own people did this because he was assisting Israel or other forces who are trying to thwart terrorism? Dance on, callous ones.

In either case, let's dance!

[craig_eddy]

I don't think people realize how wide-spread the violence being played on Israel is, until you read an article like this one...Survivor of Passover massacre killed in Netanya market bombing.

[sakic]

I've gone back and forth on the notion of capital punishment. With all of the recent DNA info freeing supposed killers from jail I'm now firmly against it until we have a better way of enforcing it.

[Big Dan]

A somber-looking Ahmed Jibril accepted condolences at his office in Damascus, Syria, shortly after receiving the news but did not comment. An aide blamed "Israel alone." Ahmed Jibril's wife, Um Jihad, wept when told by telephone that her son was killed.

Anyone else noticed how we don't get these human-face descriptions when it's Israeli civilians that are killed, instead of one of a family of terrorists?

Better headline: Terrorist Blown Up Real Good, Lt. Colonel's Family Also Sucks

[Tuco-bad]

I've gone back and forth on the notion of capital punishment. With all of the recent DNA info freeing supposed killers from jail I'm now firmly against it until we have a better way of enforcing it.

The vast majority of death-row inmates being released based on DNA is because over the years the DNA evidence had become contaminated.

[cake_crumb]

"Can't be ... Luca Brazi sleeps with the fishes."

LOL...I was thinking along the lines of a Don Corleone type character.

[cake_crumb]

"Anyone else noticed how we don't get these human-face descriptions when it's Israeli civilians that are killed, instead of one of a family of terrorists?"

Yep. We're tired of it, too.

[Redbob]

"...Jibril's son, 40-year-old Jihad..."

Good end to bad rubbish!

Also heard on the radio this morning of a suicide bombing in Israel that resulted in one death - the bomber's!
Love it when that happens.

[sakic]

I hadn't read that. Could you point me to evidence of that fact?

Nevertheless, I know of more than a few cases where they had the wrong guy. This means that many have been executed for crimes they never committed. That shouldn't happen in a civilized society and is the reason why some that have been pro death penalty are beginning to reconsider their positions.

[cake_crumb]

Idle question...

if a leader of a group of Muslim mujahadine is named "Jihad", what are his underlings called..."Jihad's jihadi"? "The Jihadjihadine"?

[Tuco-bad]

I hadn't read that. Could you point me to evidence of that fact?

Do not have evidence, but it has been mentioned a number of times in articles about the death penalty.

Nevertheless, I know of more than a few cases where they had the wrong guy. This means that many have been executed for crimes they never committed. That shouldn't happen in a civilized society and is the reason why some that have been pro death penalty are beginning to reconsider their positions.

I also am sure there are some cases of the wrong people being executed (i.e., Ox-Bow Incident), but overall the number has been quite low.

[Catspaw]

Even though daddy is still blaming Mossad (it plays well to the masses), it looks like a member of Jibril's own PFLP-GC is under arrest for the murder.

Monday, May 20, 2002 Sivan 9, 5762	Israel Time:  if (!document.layers)document.write('') 19:49 (GMT+3)

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Last update - 19:31 20/05/2002

Ahmed Jibril accuses Israel of involvement in son's death

By Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz Correspondent and agencies

	Jihad Jibril, who was killed in a car-bomb explosion in Beirut Monday. (Photo: AP)

Ahmed Jibril, general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said Monday that Israeli intelligence was behind a car bomb that killed his son, Jihad, in Beirut. An aide to Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer denied "any connection" to the car-bomb attack.

"The Mossad managed to kill Jihad this time," Jibril told reporters, referring to Israeli intelligence. "The Israeli enemy knows he was a serious field commander. He became a martyr like so many who have fallen defending the Palestinian cause."

"Israel had no connection to [the car bomb]," Ben-Eliezer's aide, Yarden Vatikay, said, adding that the defense minister had also denied any link. "As usual, they blame Israel."

Al-Manar, the television station of the Hezbollah guerrilla group which has close links to Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), said Jibril's son, 40-year-old Jihad, died in the explosion. It said it had received the confirmation from Jibril's headquarters in Damascus, Syria.

A senior PFLP-GC commander suspected of involvement in the assassination was arrested in Beirut, the Al-Jazeera television station reported Monday afternoon. In addition, Lebanese police said that they had arrested three suspects.

Contacted by The Associated Press, Ahmed Jibril's PFLP-GC headquarters in Damascus would not immediately discuss what had happened, but several members privately confirmed Jihad Jibril had been killed.

When asked who was responsible for the assassination, Talal Naji, an aide to Ahmed Jibril, said only: "Israel alone." Another aide pledged to retaliate.

Jihad Jibril was head of military operations for the guerrilla group established by his father in 1968. His mother, Um Jihad, reached by telephone in her Damascus home was weeping and, asked if it was true, said "We are not sure yet."

The blast occurred at midday on a street off the busy shopping area of Corniche Mazraa. Lebanese police officials said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed under the driver's seat of the Peugeot sedan.

Ambulances, sirens wailing, rushed to the scene of the explosion. Police sealed off the area and opened an investigation.

The blast also damaged neighborhood shops and parked cars but, apart from the driver, there were no other casualties.

Jibril's PFLP-GC is one of the radical Palestinian groups opposed to the peace process, and has close ties to the Hezbollah organization in Lebanon.

Once famed for its guerrilla operations, it has been largely on the sidelines of the Palestinian uprising against Israel that erupted in 2000, but had claimed responsibility for a shipment of weapons aboard the ship Santorini Israel intercepted en route to the West Bank in May of last year.

Ahmed Jibril pledged at that time to send more weapons for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to fight Israel.

Among the atrocities that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command has been linked to was the attack on the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Jibril's PFLP-GC also has been at odds for decades with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Most recently, the group has fired across the border on Israel, against the declared Lebanese government policy not to allow Palestinian guerrilla activity from Lebanese territory.

In May 1985, Israel freed some 1,150 Palestinian security detainees, many of whom were affiliated to Jibril's PFLP-GC, in exchange for three IDF soldiers who were taken prisoner in the aftermath of the 1982 battle at Sultan Yakoub.

At a Damascus news conference earlier this month, Jibril said Arafat's decision to do a deal with Israel over Palestinian militants holed up in Bethlehem and to jail accused killers of Israel's tourism minister showed he was a pawn of the Jewish state.

[contessa machiaveli]

live by the sword, die by the sword. rot in hell jihad.

[Johnny Crab]

Or to mis-quote a song:

BOOM! BOOM! Out go YOUR lights!

Should we sue the makers of the car or the explosives?