RAMALLAH, Aug 19: Palestinian guerilla Abu Nidal, a leading international terror figure in the 1970s and 1980s, has been found shot dead in his Baghdad home, a Palestinian source said here Monday.

The source said initial indications were that Abu Nidal, a fierce opponent of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, appeared to have committed suicide. He was 65.

Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna, broke with Arafat’s Fatah movement in 1974 and established the Fatah Revolutionary Council that was held responsible for attacks in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said that Abu Nidal was “found dead in his apartment” from gunshot wounds. The Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam earlier reported he had died three days ago.

Although the possibility that Abu Nidal was killed has not been ruled out, the source said, “At this point our best guess is that he committed suicide.”

Abu Nidal, once considered by western security agencies as one of the most dangerous men in the world and a killer of shifting allegiances, had waned in importance in the past decade.

According to US security sources, Nidal was responsible for the deaths of almost 900 people.—AFP