2 Gunmen Kill Head of Arafat’s PLO Group in Beirut
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BEIRUT — Gunmen Thursday assassinated the top official in Beirut of the PLO’s mainstream Fatah movement in a Palestinian power struggle. It was the 10th such killing this year.
Two men with pistols fired four bullets into Col. Ihsan Mohammed Salem’s head as he walked near his home in the suburb of Talet Kayyat, security sources said.
Salem, 45, known by his nom de guerre, Yunis Awad, died instantly. The gunmen escaped on foot.
The shooting was the latest in a power struggle in Lebanon between Fatah, led by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, and the radical Revolutionary Council of Fatah, headed by Abu Nidal.
Fatah said agents of the Israeli secret service and Arab intelligence services killed Salem.
The Revolutionary Council of Fatah, which vehemently opposes peace negotiations with Israel, split from Fatah in 1974.
Elsewhere, Israeli gunboats and helicopters struck Palestinian strongholds near Tripoli in northern Lebanon. Police said three people were wounded.
In southern Lebanon, guerrillas detonated a bomb near a five-man patrol of Israeli-allied Lebanese militiamen. Two militiamen were killed, police said. Israeli tanks shelled suspected rocket launching sites in southeast Lebanon.
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