Abu Ali Iyad
Abu Ali Iyad وليد أحمد نمر | |
---|---|
Al-Assifa | |
Rank | Commander |
Battles/wars |
|
Walid Ahmad Nimr (
during the 1960s and early 1970s.After a career of teaching in the West Bank, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, Abu Ali Iyad was recruited into the paramilitary group, Fatah, by Khalil al-Wazir in 1964 after graduating from an Algerian military training course. A year later, he became one of Fatah's first leaders in Syria along with al-Wazir and Yasser Arafat. During his time there, Abu Ali Iyad gained a position on the group's top political body, supervised its main guerrilla training camp in Daraa and set up a military intelligence headquarters.
As a Fatah field commander, he fought
Early life
Abu Ali Iyad was born in
Fatah command
While in Algeria, Abu Ali Iyad was recruited into the Palestinian nationalist paramilitary organization Fatah by the leader of its armed wing Khalil al-Wazir.[2] He adopted his nom de guerre after joining.[3] Fatah at the time was divided politically with the more non-violent leadership based in Kuwait and those supporting attacks against Israel based in Syria. Abu Ali Iyad, along with al-Wazir, Yasser Arafat, and three others in the Syrian camp, formed the organization's "emergency" field command in Damascus in 1965.[1][2]
A year later al-Wazir, Arafat, and much of the Fatah military leadership were arrested by Syrian authorities loyal to
Following the release of the rest of Fatah's leadership, the
Also after his release, in 1966, Abu Ali Iyad became the chief military instructor of a training camp for Fatah recruits in the city of
Commander in Jordan
He moved to Jordan in 1968 where he trained Fatah forces in
Relations between the PLO and
Abu Ali Iyad was part of the field command there along with al-Wazir. They headed a force of roughly 2,500 guerrillas in the hilly terrain around Ajlun and Jerash.[13] Their position was vulnerable due to the ineffectiveness of Palestinian guerrilla warfare against Jordanian armor in open areas versus urban warfare in the cities and Palestinian refugee camps.[8] Most of the PLO leadership, including Arafat and al-Wazir, and hundreds of guerrillas escaped Jordan in April 1971 following pressure from Arab states, confiscation of weapons by the Jordanian Army and the closing of PLO offices in Amman.[13] Abu Ali Iyad refused to do so, however, and he and his Tiger Cubs stayed put in their Ajlun base where they continued to fight the Jordanian Army.[8][13]
On July 12, King Hussein ordered the evacuation of all guerrilla forces from the strategic mountain in the center of their stronghold in Ajlun.[14] Hussein personally offered to allow Abu Ali Iyad to depart unharmed if he abandoned his fighters.[15] He refused and Hussein ordered his troops to track down and kill him within the framework of routing out remaining PLO forces in northern Jordan.[8] A Jordanian infantry division and armored brigade backed by 10,000 Bedouin foot soldiers immediately launched an offensive afterward. By July 16, Palestinian positions had been secured by the Jordanian Army.[14] During the Jordanian offensive, 200-250 guerrillas had been killed and 70-100 of Abu Ali's troops fled, crossing the Jordan River to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.[8][14]
Death and aftermath
In early July, prior to the offensive, Abu Ali sent letters to Fatah leaders chastising them for surrendering to King Hussein's forces, stating in defiance "We will die on our feet rather than kneel." On July 23, he was reported killed by the Jordanian Army.
His partisans sought vengeance for his killing and a splinter group developed within Fatah consisting of men from the Tiger Cubs and other Fatah dissidents.[8] It came to be known as the Black September Organization (BSO) and Abu Ali's men provided its initial membership.[18] On November 28, one of his former Tiger Cubs, Munshir al-Khalifa, assassinated Tal in Cairo. According to Seale, this was the first attack carried out by the BSO.[8]
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dedicated the poem "Returning to Jaffa" to Abu Ali Iyad.[19]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Palestinian personalities Archived 2012-04-19 at the Wayback Machine. Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA).
- ^ a b c Sayigh, 1997, p.123.
- ^ Bowen, 2004, p.126.
- ^ Hart, 1994, p.209.
- ^ a b c Sayigh, 1997, p.128.
- ^ Rapoport, p.468.
- ^ a b PA TV Honors Terrorist Abu Ali Iyad as Hero. Palestinian Media Watch. An excerpt from a Palestinian Authority TV dated February 11, 2010 is cited by Palestinian Media Watch as their source.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Seale, 1992, pp.81-82.
- ^ Sayigh, 1997, p.183.
- ^ Sayigh, 1997, p.225.
- ^ a b Sayigh, 1997, p.259.
- ^ Seyigh, p.262.
- ^ a b c d Sayigh, 1997, p.278.
- ^ a b c d Sayigh, 1997, p.279.
- ^ Genet and Bray, 2003, p.142.
- ^ a b Amos, 1980, p.222.
- ^ Bird, 2010, p.279.
- ^ Quandt, Jabber and Lesch, 1973, p.141.
- ^ Returning to Jaffa Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Zajel. An-Najah National University.
Bibliography
- Amos, John (1980). Palestinian Resistance: organization of a nationalist movement. Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-025094-7.
- Bird, Kai (2010). Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: coming of age between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-4440-1.
- Bowen, Jeremy (2004). Six Days: how the 1967 war shaped the Middle East. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-4969-X.
- Genet, Jean; trans. Bray, Barbara (2003). Prisoner of Love. New York Review Books. ISBN 1-59017-028-8.
- ISBN 978-0-283-06220-9.
- Quandt, William B.; Jabber, Paul; Lesch, Ann Mosely (1973). The Politics of Palestinian nationalism. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02372-2.
Quandt Jabber Lesch Palestinian.
- Rapoport, David C. (2006). Terrorism: The third or new left wave. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-31653-7.
- ISBN 0-19-829265-1.
- ISBN 0-679-40066-4.