Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

188 • FATAH REVOLUTIONARY COUNCILBritain, Shlomo Argov, on 3 June 1982 in the name of Black June.On 23 November 1985, EgyptAir’s Athens to Cairo Flight 648 washijacked to Malta, where the hijacker, Muhammad Ali Rezaq, shottwo Israeli and three American passengers, dumping their bodies onthe runway. When Egyptian commandos made a rescue attempt on24 November 1985, Rezaq escaped, while 58 passengers were shotor burned to death. On 27 December 1985 a massacre of travelersat the Rome and Vienna airports was carried out, killing 18 peopleand injuring 60 others. The Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul wasattacked on 6 September 1986, in which two gunmen murdered andmutilated 21 people. As an example of the extreme waywardness andunpredictability of the FRC, the group directed a suicide car bomberto strike the Israeli embassy in Cyprus on 11 May 1988, in revengefor Israel’s assassination of PLO official Wazir al Khalil, yet is itselfsuspected of having assassinated another PLO official, Salah Khalaf,along with three other PLO officials, on 14 January 1991.The FRC was identified as having committed 44 major terroristacts in the period from 1980 to 1987, including 11 assassinations,seven bombings, and one car bombing. In addition, using the nameof the Black September Organization, it carried out 17 more actionsin the period from 1981 to 1987, including six assassinations,four bombings, and one car bombing. Using the name of the ArabRevolutionary Brigades, it committed another 15 actions from 1982to 1986, including six assassinations, five bombings, and one carbombing. Under the name of the Revolutionary Movement of SocialistMuslims, it committed another 11 actions from 1984 to 1985,including four bombings, three kidnappings, and two assassinations.Using the name of the Black June group, it committed another fiveactions from 1981 to 1986, including two assassinations and onebombing. Reports indicated that during the latter part of 1988, AbuNidal carried out a massive purge of his organization, killing around160–170 former colleagues suspected of treachery. In July 1998 AbuNidal was nearly deposed as leader of the FRC by 10 dissidents, buthe survived this attempt by co-opting the protection of the Egyptiansecurity service, which placed him under protective detention whiledeporting the dissidents.On 15 July 1993, an arrest team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) caught Muhammad Ali Rezaq, the hijacker of EgyptAirFlight 648, in Lagos, Nigeria, and returned him to the United States