Pat Dollard

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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – George Habash, whose radical PLO faction gained notoriety after the simultaneous hijackings of four Western airliners in 1970 and the seizure of an Air France flight to Entebbe, Uganda, died Saturday in Jordan. He was 81.

The former guerrilla leader, and main rival of Yasser Arafat, died of a heart attack in Amman, said Leila Khaled, a member of the Palestine National Council and a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Habash founded.

Born to a Christian Arab family, Habash opposed Arab-Israeli peace talks. His group was the second-largest in the PLO after Fatah, the faction of Arafat and current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Habash and his group gained notoriety for the 1970 hijackings of four Western airliners over the United States, Europe, the Far East and the Persian Gulf. The aircraft were blown up in the Middle East after passengers and crews disembarked.

Habash promoted the Palestinian cause through terrorist attacks in the including the hijacking of an Air France airliner to Entebbe, Uganda. The group also was responsible for gunning down 27 people at Israel’s Lod airport in May 1972.

Abbas declared three-day mourning period for Habash and ordered flags to fly at half-staff. He called Habash a “historic leader” and said he would receive condolences at his office Sunday evening.

Habash, an American-educated physician, launched the Popular Front in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights to Israel.

Habash opposed interim peace agreements with Israel, in part because they did not require Israel to stop settlement construction. Throughout his life, he supported the use of violence against Israel, arguing that Israel would not make the concessions required for a peace agreement.

However, since the early 1980s, he came to support the PLO platform, which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories and a “right of return” of Palestinian refugees.

Habash frequently criticized Arafat, particularly during his attempts to negotiate with Israel.