Abu Nidal Had Been Due in Court

Terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal ended his life with a gunshot wound when security agents went to his apartment to arrest him, Iraq’s intelligence chief said Wednesday.

Tahir Jalil Haboush said that weapons and false passports were found in Abu Nidal’s apartment in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Haboush also said that the radical Palestinian was suspected of “communicating” with a foreign country, but he refused to specify which one.

He did not specify when Abu Nidal had died.

In Beirut, the Lebanese capital, Abu Nidal’s organization, the radical Fatah Revolutionary Council, said its leader was killed by one of Baghdad’s intelligence agencies and urged Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to investigate.

Palestinian officials in the West Bank said Abu Nidal, 65, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds Friday. But Haboush said a single shot killed him.

According to Haboush, when security officers arrived to take Abu Nidal to court, he said he needed to go to his bedroom to change clothes. Officers then heard a gun fired and found that Abu Nidal had shot himself in the mouth, he said.

Abu Nidal later died in a hospital, Haboush said.

Haboush showed photos of what he said was Abu Nidal’s body. One set showed a gray-haired man lying in a bed, his face streaked with blood that had soaked his pillow. Another set of photos showed the man in a hospital bed, hooked up to an oxygen mask and intravenous bags.

The intelligence chief said an Arab state, which he would not identify, informed Baghdad in 1999 that Abu Nidal had entered Iraq from Iran using a false Yemeni passport. Iraq had never admitted that Abu Nidal was in the country until reports of his death surfaced.

But in Beirut, Abu Nidal’s group claimed that he had entered Iraq “with the full knowledge and preparations” of the authorities.