Tried to Set Up El Al Bombing, Palestinian Says
A Palestinian confessed Friday to attempting to blow up an Israeli airliner last week on orders of a Syrian-backed terrorist group, judicial authorities said.
Nasser Hassan Ali told a judge at a court hearing that he tricked a Spaniard into trying to get a bomb-laden suitcase aboard an El Al Israel Airlines flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv on June 26. The bomb exploded prematurely at an airport security check, injuring 13 people, two of them seriously.
Hassan Ali said he acted alone but was carrying out orders of the Abu Moussa Group, a breakaway faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He admitted membership in the group, which rebelled against PLO leader Yasser Arafat in May, 1983, with backing from Syria.
The man suspected of carrying the suitcase, Isaias Manuel Jalafe, 32, told the judge he had met Hassan Ali in downtown Madrid. He said Hassan Ali posed as a big-time drug dealer and gave him money, food and clothes.
In earlier statements to police, Jalafe said the Palestinian offered him $1,000 and an air ticket to Israel if he would carry the suitcase, which Hassan Ali said contained drugs.
On the day Jalafe was to board the El Al flight, Hassan Ali went to his hotel room and gave him a gift-wrapped box to take to Israel, the Spaniard told the judge.
Police said the box contained two cologne bottles packed with explosives and rigged to a timing device.
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