Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal put a pistol into his mouth and pulled the trigger when Iraqi security men went to his Baghdad apartment to arrest him, Iraq's intelligence chief said yesterday.
Mr Taher Jaleel al-Haboush, head of the intelligence service, told a news conference in Baghdad that Abu Nidal (65), one of the world's most wanted men whose death was leaked on Monday, was about to be arrested and charged with entering Iraq illegally when he committed suicide.
But Nidal's group yesterday dismissed the claim, saying he had been assassinated by the intelligence services of an unnamed country.
Mr Haboush produced pictures of the dying guerrilla, an array of forged passports and ID cards and pictures of a weapons arsenal found at Abu Nidal's apartment which included assault rifles, silencer-equipped pistols and booby-trapped suitcases.
He said coded messages were also found at the apartment which showed the guerrilla leader was on the pay of an unnamed country.
Mr Haboush did not give the exact date of Abu Nidal's death. He said Palestinian officials were handling the burial arrangements.
"A security unit went to inform him that he had entered Iraq illegally and that he should accompany them for interrogation," said Mr Haboush.
"At first he welcomed the idea and then asked to be excused. He went to his room, locked the door and a shot was heard. He had fired a shot into his mouth. He was taken to hospital but died after around eight hours."
Mr Haboush said Iraq was tipped off in 1999 by an unnamed Arab state that Abu Nidal, whom he said was expelled from Baghdad in 1983, had entered Iraq from Iran on a forged Yemeni passport. The Iraqi authorities launched a long investigation before revealing Abu Nidal's residence which he had rented under another name.
A Palestinian source in the West Bank city of Ramallah said Iraqi authorities had discovered Abu Nidal had opened channels to Iraqi guerrillas in Syria and Jordan opposed to President Saddam Hussein and wanted to put a stop to the activity before any US military operations against Iraq.
Other sources in Ramallah said Abu Nidal had shot himself because he was suffering from cancer and addicted to painkillers.
Abu Nidal was leader of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council. The group was blamed for attacks in 20 countries in which hundreds of people were killed and wounded, mostly during the 1970s and 1980s. - (Reuters)