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194———Jibril, Ahmed (1937?– )

Karp, Yehudit. The Karp Report: Investigation of buses and apartment buildings. In May 1985, Jibril
Suspicions Against Israelis in Judea and Samaria. negotiated with Israel for the release of more than
Jerusalem: Israeli Government, 1984. 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for three
“The Manning File: Evidence Against Extradition.” The Israeli soldiers the PFLP–GC had taken hostage
Jerusalem Torah Voice and Investigative Report. June while fighting in Lebanon. The trade became known
1992. www.torahvoice.org/manning.html. as the “Jibril exchange.”
Twair, Pat, and Samir Twair. “Accused Letter-Bomb Jibril also orchestrated Operation Kibya, referred
Murderer Extradited to U.S. From Israel.” Washington
Report, September/October 1993, 60. to as Night of the Hang Gliders. On November 25,
U.S. Department of Energy. Terrorism in the United States 1987, four heavily armed PFLP members hang-glided
and the Potential Threat to Nuclear Facilities, R-3351- into Israeli territory. Three of the terrorists experi-
DOE, January 1986. enced mechanical problems and did not get far, but the
U.S. Department of Justice. Analysis of Terrorist Incidents fourth, Khaled Aker, managed to penetrate the Israeli
and Terrorist Related Activities in the United States, Defense Force’s Camp Gibor and kill six soldiers
1985, 16-18. before being shot himself. The spectacular attack
made a terror icon of Jibril and inspired the first
intifada (“throwing off”), a period of intense violence
JIBRIL, AHMED (1937?– ) against Israel. The Night of the Hang Gliders has such
symbolic weight that the Israeli military traditionally
makes a point of striking PFLP–GC targets every
Ahmed Jibril is the militant Palestinian leader of November 25.
the Syrian-sponsored terrorist group, Popular Front The explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over
for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, struck many intelligence
(PFLP–GC). He is a master bomb maker and is con- officials as the work of Jibril and the PFLP–GC. From
sidered by many to be one of the most dangerous his Damascus headquarters, Jibril denied any involve-
terrorists of the late 20th century. ment. However, the type of bomb used appeared to
It is believed that Jibril was born in Yazur, south of investigators to be a Jibril trademark, leading many to
Tel Aviv, although some accounts list his birthplace as suspect that Jibril had, at the very least, trained the
Ramallah or even Syria. In any case, his family later bombers. Investigators thought it more likely still that
moved to Syria, and Jibril joined the Syrian Army Jibril had orchestrated the entire attack, possibly as
in 1956, rising to the rank of captain before being revenge for the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by
expelled as a troublemaker and suspected Communist the United States. Scotland later indicted two employ-
in 1958. Jibril briefly worked with Yasir Arafat’s Fatah ees of Libyan Arab Airlines for the Pan Am attack, in
movement in its early days, but left to cofound the which a total of 270 people died.
Palestine Liberation Front (PLF). With Syrian sup- In 1989, during the international uproar about
port, the PLF carried out assassinations as well as Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses, Jibril told
multiple terror attacks against Israel. Jibril served as a the press that he and his group were ready to murder
commander and became particularly known for train- Rushdie for heresy as called for by Iranian religious
ing others in terror techniques. leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In 1967, Jibril and George Habash formed the Rumors abound that Jibril has been experiencing
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). health problems since the early 1990s; this, along with
Jibril soon broke away from the group, however, a concerted effort by the Israeli military to eliminate
as tensions developed between Syria and Habash. the PFLP–GC, seems to have led the group to scale
In 1968, Jibril founded the separate, pro-Syrian back its activity in recent years. Nonetheless, the U.S.
group PFLP–General Command, claiming that fight- State Department has listed the PFLP–GC as an active
ing, not politics, was the way to achieve Palestinian terrorist organization in its most recent report on
goals. global terrorism.
The PFLP–GC carried out many attacks and
kidnappings during the 1970s and 1980s, including See also GEORGE HABASH; PAN AM FLIGHT 103 BOMBING;
the 1970 bombing of Swissair Flight 330, and nume- POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE–
rous attacks on Israeli civilian targets such as school GENERAL COMMAND