Palestinian police arrested five Arabs in the Gaza Strip on suspicion of plotting the assassination of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat.
The five were said to be followers to terrorist Abu Nidal, who has been at odds with Arafat ever since he broke away from the PLO leader in the 1970s.
A Palestinian security official said Wednesday that the five came from Libya and Algeria a week earlier, adding that they were arrested after crossing into Gaza from Egypt.
The official added that security had been stepped up around Arafat in the wake of the Nov. 4 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Abu Nidal, whose real name is Sabri al-Banna, is wanted in the United States and Europe for his terrorist activities.
He is violently opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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