Slain militant group leader buried in Syria
Wed May 22, 4:12 PM ET
By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer

DAMASCUS, Syria - The slain commander of a radical Palestinian group was buried here on Wednesday amid calls for revenge against the Israelis who they blame for carrying out the car-bomb assassination two days earlier.

Audio/Video
Slain Militant Group Leader Buried in Syria (AP)



Jihad Jibril, 38, commander of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, was killed in Lebanon on Monday by a detonated bomb that destroyed his Peugeot, dug a hole in the street and scattered bits of his body for several meters (yards).

"Wait, oh coward Zionists, for the retaliation," the leader of the militant Hamas group, Khaled Mashaal, told some 10,000 mourners who watched Jibril's coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, being lowered into a grave at the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp.

Israel denies it killed Jibril, the commander of the PFLP-GC's military operations in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, on Israel.

Black flags hung from lamp posts in Yarmouk in a traditional sign of mourning. Huge portraits of Jihad were erected on balconies and slogans denouncing Israel were strung across the camp's narrow streets.

"We vow to revenge you Jihad," some placards read.

Earlier Wednesday, some 3,000 people gathered outside the state-run Al-Mouassat hospital in downtown Damascus where Jibril's funeral process began. Wailing women and men carrying Jibril's picture followed a hearse carrying his coffin as it passed through the capital's center.

Among the mourners were Syrian politicians, leaders from nine Damascus-based militant Palestinian groups and Jibril's family, including his father, Ahmed Jibril, the founder-leader of the PFLP-GC.

The PFLP-GC has long opposed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. It has claimed responsibility for many deadly attacks against Israelis in recent years and continued to threaten Israel from Lebanon.

Late Tuesday night, Jibril's father said "irrefutable evidence" pointed to Jordanian intelligence agents collaborating with Israel in the assassination. He did not elaborate.

Talal Naji, assistant secretary-general of the PFLP-GC, said the assassination is "a terrorist and barbaric act."

The slain Jibril is survived by his wife and two sons, aged 10 and 6.

Founded as an offshoot of the PFLP in 1968, the PFLP-GC quickly gained a reputation for some of the wilder attacks against Israel. It hijacked an El Al jetliner in 1968 and machine gunned another at Zurich airport in 19 69. In 1970, it planted a time-bomb on a Swissair jet that blew up on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv, killing all 47 on aboard.

During Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the group captured three Israeli soldiers and held them until Israel agreed to hand over more than 1,100 Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian Prisoners in 1985.

It has also been at odds for decades with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) and the PLO mainstream. It rejects any peace deal with Israel and does not recognize the Jewish State.

(dam-pg)