Callers Say Force 17 Killed 2 Israeli Seamen in Spain

Telephone callers in Madrid and Beirut today assumed responsibility on behalf of PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17 bodyguard for the brutal murders of two Israeli merchant seamen whose bodies were found Wednesday in a Barcelona apartment.

A high-ranking PLO official in Amman, Jordan, denied involvement in the killings and charged Israel was conducting a propaganda campaign against Arafat.

A caller to United Press International in Madrid said the two men were killed as part of the Palestinian “fight against Zionists everywhere.”

He identified himself as a spokesman for Force 17, the same faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization blamed for the slaying of three Israelis in Cyprus two weeks ago that triggered an Israeli reprisal air raid that killed at least 73 people in Tunisia.

“A commando unit of Force 17 killed on Oct. 5 two Zionist sailors of the Zionist ship the California,” the caller said.

Officials in Barcelona said the two merchant seamen were found bound, beaten and fatally stabbed after neighbors complained of a stench from an apartment rented a year ago by a Palestinian identified as Osama Ezzaheer.

The two victims were identified by Israeli officials as Zion Aby, 33, and Yaakov Abu, 32, both from Haifa. The two, who were not related, were reported missing Saturday by the Israeli merchant ship California before it left Barcelona.

Police said both bodies were bound and gagged. The victims apparently had been beaten on the head and stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen.

Police discovered three empty cartridges in the apartment and were awaiting an autopsy to determine if one of the men had also been shot in the head.

In a second call to the UPI office in Beirut, a man who said he was from Force 17 said the men were murdered in reprisal for the arrest of several Palestinians in boats off the Israeli coast in recent months.

“A unit of Force 17 on Oct. 10, 1985, executed two Zionist sailors from the ship California in the Spanish port of Barcelona,” the man said. “This operation was carried out in retaliation for the operations of piracy that have been carried out by the warships of the Zionist enemy.”

There was no explanation for the date given, nor was there any way to confirm the two callers’ claims.

The Israeli government released a statement saying Prime Minister Shimon Peres had blamed the PLO for the killings in a meeting in Jerusalem with U.N. Undersecretary General Brian Urquhart.