Abdel-Rahim Ahmed; Leader of Arab Liberation Front

Abdel-Rahim Ahmed, 47, leader of the Iraqi-supported Arab Liberation Front and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s ruling executive committee. Ahmed was one of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat’s closest allies. His Baghdad, Iraq-based guerrilla group, among the smallest of the nine Palestine Liberation Organization factions, was reported in 1986 to have 250 fighters. It was supported by Iraq and the PLO. Ahmed was born in the Palestinian village of Haditha, near Lod, in what is now Israel. He was a schoolboy when his family emigrated to Jordan, after the 1948 war led to the creation of the state of Israel on parts of the British-mandate Palestine. He became a guerrilla while still a teen-ager. In 1970, he formed the Arab Liberation Front with financial help from Iraq. The Palestine National Council, a self-declared parliament-in-exile, accepted the front as a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization that year and elected him to its executive committee. The 15-man decision-making body is headed by Arafat and includes senior leaders of the nine PLO factions. It was not immediately clear who would take over the leadership of the front. On Sunday in Amman, Jordan, of brain and lung cancer.