Wazir, Top PLO Aide, Slain in Tunis
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KUWAIT — Seven unknown gunmen assassinated a senior leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization in a hail of machine-gun fire in Tunis, Tunisia, the PLO announced early today.
The PLO’s Fatah guerrilla organization said Khalil Wazir, deputy commander of the PLO’s armed forces, died late Friday night.
The Palestinian leader, code-named Abu Jihad, was hit by machine-gun fire from seven gunmen in Tunis, where he was based, Fatah said in a brief press statement released in Kuwait.
He died in a Tunis hospital, the statement said.
Palestinian sources described Wazir as the highest-ranking PLO official next to chairman Yasser Arafat.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination and no other details were available.
Fatah is the dominant group within the PLO, and it has the largest membership. Politically, it is generally less extremist than other PLO factions.
For more than a decade, Fatah has concentrated largely on political activity, but it has not renounced guerrilla activity.
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