US accused of assassinating Abbas

FOLLOWERS of Mohammed Abbas, Palestinian mastermind of the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking in 1985, said yesterday his death in US custody in Iraq amounted to "assassination".

Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Abbas, was captured by American forces in Iraq nearly a year ago and Washington vowed to bring him to justice. The US military in Baghdad confirmed his death in detention, one official attributing it to a heart attack.

"We hold the Americans responsible for his death, for his assassination," said Omar Sheble, number two to 56-year-old Abbas in the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF). "They put him to die slowly in a prison cell, deprived of his freedom. His detention was illegal and his conditions in jail were bad," he said.

Mr Sheble said wakes would be held for Abbas in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iraq, but it was not clear where he would be buried.

"We have to consult with his wife in Lebanon and also with (Palestinian president Yasser) Arafat." Mr Sheble said Abbas's wife was banned by Israel from entering the Palestinian territories.

Abbas planned the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in October 1985 during which a wheelchair-bound American Jew, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, was killed and thrown into the sea.

Abbas had spent most of the past 17 years in Iraq, eluding capture by the United States and Italy.

Italy freed Abbas after US warplanes forced his jet to land in Sicily following the hijack, although it later sentenced him - when he had already left - to life in jail.

Efforts by the United States to bring Abbas before a court foundered on legal and diplomatic problems.