The terrorist organization responsible for the Kiryat Shemona massacre is regarded in Israel as a para-military adjunct of the Syrian Baathist regime and the Syrian army. The Syrian government has provided it with money and arms since the end of 1971. The organization which calls itself the “Popular Front-General Command,” has its headquarters and training camps in Syria. One of them, at Ein Shouma Just north of Damascus, was bombed by the Israel Air Force last Oct. 30 during the Yom Kippur War.
The leader of the group, Ahmed Jibril, is a former captain in the Syrian army engineers corps and a trained demolition expert. Jibril, 39, who is also known as “Abu Jihad” (a jihad is a Moslem holy war) was one of the founders of the Palestine Liberation Front that was active prior to the Six-Day War. At the end of 1967 it merged with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 1968, Jibril quit the PFLP but continued to operate under the same name, adding “General Command” to it.
ENGAGED IN OTHER TERRORIST ACTIONS
Jibril was one of the first terrorists to try to implement the Baath party’s doctrine of “popular wars of liberation.” His group numbers several hundred members, most of them with military know-how. Immediately after the Kiryat Shemona massacre it put out a false story that the purpose was to seize hostages for the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israel. Israelis say that this was only a “cover” to disguise the true intent which was simply to murder as many people as possible.
That view is borne out by the past record of Jibril’s group. It is held responsible for the death of 47 passengers and crew members of a Swiss air liner that was blown up in mid-air while enroute to Israel in Feb. 1972. On the same day an explosion damaged an Austrian Air Line plane in midair but it landed safely.
Jibril’s organization was also responsible for the massacre of Israeli children in a school bus ambush near Avivim in May, 1970 In Aug. and Sept. of that year, suitcases filled with explosives were carried aboard El AI planes by foreign passengers who were unaware of their contents. Letter bombs sent to Israel from various cities abroad have also been traced to the Jibril organization. The latest outrage prior to the Kiryat Shemona massacre was the murder of an Israeli girl and the wounding of her soldier friend by bazooka first near Kibbutz Dan last Feb.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
