Militant blames Israel for Beirut blast

[gelatik]

The leader of a hardline Palestinian militant group has blamed Israel for a car
bomb attack which killed his son in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Ahmed Jibril, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-
General Command (PFLP-GC), said the Israeli secret service (Mossad) was behind
the blast.
Forty-year-old Muhammad Jihad Jibril, Mr Jibril's eldest son, died in a large
explosion when he tried to start his car in Beirut's Mar Elias district.

Israel has denied any connection to the bombing.

Speaking from his headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Mr Jibril
said: "The Mossad managed this time to assassinate my son after having tried in
vain four times to do it.

"He is now a martyr, like the Palestinians who offer their lives daily in
Palestine," he said.

But Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer dismissed the claim.

"Not everything that blows up in Beirut has to be connected to us," he told
Israel television.


Jihad Jibril's body was handed over to his family on Monday and carried aloft
through the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut.

He is due to be buried in Syria on Wednesday.

[gelatik]