Word: syrian
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...1960s Abbas joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, then and now a Marxist-oriented group headed by George Habash, who is still a power in the P.L.O. Finding the P.F.L.P. not radical enough, Abbas shortly after followed a former Syrian army officer named Ahmed Jabril into a splinter group calling itself the P.F.L.P.-General Command, which also still exists as part of the P.L.O. After being expelled from Jordan in 1971, the P.L.O., and Abbas with it, set up shop in Lebanon and grew into a major power, which, however, became enmeshed in the Lebanese civil...
...human terms, the most poignant new development came on Monday, when the body of Leon Klinghoffer washed ashore near the Syrian port of Tartus. The Achille Lauro was off the Syrian coast when the retired Manhattan appliance manufacturer, who was partly paralyzed by two strokes and confined to a wheelchair, had been killed and his body thrown overboard. Abbas and P.L.O. Chairman Arafat, among others, had publicly questioned whether Klinghoffer had actually been shot. The Syrian government of President Hafez Assad, a foe of Arafat's, quickly reported the discovery of the corpse, and an FBI agent flew to Damascus...
...proceeded over dinner. Though his country remains deeply troubled, Amin Gemayel, 43, sounded unexpectedly optimistic, insisting that the recent unrest in Tripoli and Beirut is like "the last battle in a long war." Indeed, the major factions in Lebanon's ten-year civil war last week agreed to a Syrian-sponsored proposal to end the fighting. Gemayel endorsed the plan at week's end during talks in Damascus with Syrian President Hafez Assad. Whether the accord will prove to be any more durable than previous ones remains to be seen...
...situation reached crisis point early Tuesday afternoon as the gunmen awaited permission from Syrian authorities for the Achille Lauro to dock at Tartus. The hijackers had asked by radio to be put in touch with the Italian and American ambassadors in Damascus, hoping to negotiate the release of their 50 comrades in Israel. A Lebanese radio station monitored the chilling sequence of threats by one of the gunmen. At 12:30 p.m. Tuesday: "Any delay in the arrival of the ambassadors will be damaging." At 12:32 p.m.: "There is no time to lose, and the first ultimatum...
Shortly after the murder, the gunman with the bloodstained clothing appeared on the bridge, told Captain De Rosa what had happened and ordered him to advise the Syrian authorities in Tartus. He also said that the second victim would be "Miss Mildred," evidently referring to Mildred Hodes, but he did not follow through on that threat. For a while, some passengers and crew members thought the gunmen might also have murdered an Austrian woman, Anna Hoerangner, who was missing. Eventually it was discovered that though she had been knocked down a flight of stairs by a hijacker at the time...