Word: abu
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...campaign to destroy Arafat. Though Assad and the P.L.O. chieftain have worked together in the past, the strains were always there. As early as 1969, when Assad was Defense Minister, he tried to regulate the activities of P.L.O. guerrillas in Syria. As President, he supported Arafat's avowed enemy Abu Nidal, a rogue P.L.O. leader who ran the Black June terrorist group. After the Lebanese civil war, Assad supported Beirut's right to impose rules on the P.L.O. even though the group was far stronger than the government. While Assad saw the Palestinian cause as subordinate to his wider vision...
...more than a week, the durable chieftain and some 4,000 diehard supporters fought off a savage offensive by an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Syrian-backed guerrillas in and around the northern port city of Tripoli. According to Abu Mousa, leader of the rebel faction that mounted the assault, it was meant only to persuade Arafat to enter a "dialogue of reform" with P.L.O. dissidents who oppose his policies. The battle, in reality, was nothing less than a crude move by Syria to squelch Arafat once and for all and seize control of the P.L.O. Faced with...
...between the hills and the sea. The rebels included not only Fatah dissidents but guerrillas from Syrian-and Libyan-sponsored factions within the P.L.O. Though Damascus denied direct involvement, Syrian guns and tanks supplied the firepower while Syrian Defense Minister Major General Mustafa Tlas coordinated strategy with Abu Mousa...
...fighting spreads, the powerful militia of the Islamic Unification Movement, which controls parts of the city, has vowed to come to his aid. Both sides, however, gave their word to spare Tripoli. Arafat apparently promised not to shell rebel positions from within the city, thus risking return fire, while Abu Mousa pledged not to invade. Nonetheless, rumors floated through the city all week that Arafat was about to flee. On Thursday, Italian Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini announced that the missile launcher Orsa and the destroyer Intrepido stood ready off the Lebanese coast to evacuate Arafat...
...including the Palestine Liberation Army, will come even more under the control of Syria. Three of the eight separate organizations that form the commando groups of the P.L.O., including Saiqa and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, are already loyal to Syria. If Rebel Leader Abu Mousa is able to defeat Arafat with Syrian backing, he will make a bid for control of Al Fatah, the Arafat-founded group that accounts for some 80% of the P.L.O.'s strength...