The World - News from May 6, 1986

The State Department called on Syria to expel the Abu Nidal terrorist organization from territory under its control. The statement represented a shift from January, when U.S. officials were stressing the group’s ties to Libya. A State Department spokesman said that “facilities and personnel” of the terrorist group are in “Syria and in Syrian-controlled parts of Lebanon.” The Abu Nidal group is believed responsible for a number of attacks, including raids on the Rome and Vienna airports last December, in which 20 people died, including five Americans. Israel Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, meanwhile, said that Syria, not Libya, was behind the attempted bombing of an El Al jetliner in London last month, but he offered no proof.