Senior PLO faction activist killed

The leader of a small PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was killed today by shells fired from Israeli tanks, Palestinian doctors and witnesses said.

The man killed was Abu Ali Mustafa, said Dr Mohammed Abu Hmeid, the director general of hospitals in the West Bank.

Mustafa’s body was torn apart, Abu Hmeid said.

Mustafa was in his office, near Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in the town of Ramallah, when three shells hit the building, Palestinian security officials said.

Mustafa was elected last year as leader of the PFLP, a radical PLO faction which was previously led by George Habash, who was based in the Syrian capital, Damascus.