Million Line Streets for Wazir Funeral
Mounted on a gun carriage, the coffin of slain PLO military commander Khalil Wazir moved through the streets of Damascus to a martyrs’ cemetery today as up to a million mourners paid their final respects.
The emotional funeral of a much-respected Palestinian chief on Syrian soil had raised hopes among Palestinians of a long-sought reconciliation between radical Damascus and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
As the cortege headed slowly toward the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of the capital, Palestinian officials said members of the PLO executive committee had met Syria’s foreign minister, Farouk Shareh, to discuss reconciliation.
They said Shareh promised that Syria would officially receive PLO leader Yasser Arafat, expelled from the country in 1983, if he came to Damascus and that meetings with Syrian leaders, possibly including President Hafez Assad, would be arranged.
Wazir, believed responsible for coordinating a 4-month-old uprising in the Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, was assassinated in Tunis, Tunisia, on Saturday by gunmen widely believed to be Israelis.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
