Arafat Aide Slain in Lebanon; Another Remains in Coma
An aide to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat was assassinated in the Lebanese port city of Sidon on Wednesday, a day after Arafat’s top official in Lebanon survived an attempt on his life.
Police said Bassam Hourani was hit by bullets fired from a speeding car near a vegetable market in Sidon, 24 miles south of Beirut. Hourani, 30, died instantly, and the gunmen escaped.
The shooting occurred less than 24 hours after Arafat’s personal representative in Lebanon, Issam Salem, was critically wounded in Sidon when a masked gunman shot him in the head.
A spokesman at Hammoud Hospital said the 48-year-old Salem came through a five-hour operation to remove a bullet that pierced his forehead in the Tuesday assassination attempt. But Salem remains in a coma.
There was no claim of responsibility in either attack.
Arafat, a staunch foe of Syrian President Hafez Assad, had declared support for the Christians in the latest round of Lebanon’s 14-year civil war. But Arafat’s estimated 5,000 guerrillas--who have returned to the Sidon region after the evacuation from Lebanon during Israel’s 1982 invasion--have not been actively involved in the fighting.
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