
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995                   TAG: 9510310044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                LENGTH: Short

ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER REPORTED SLAIN IN MALTA

A man believed to be Fathi Shikaki, the founder and leader of the Islamic Jihad movement that has carried out a series of fatal attacks on Israelis, was shot dead in Malta last week, Israeli television reported Saturday.

Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza confirmed that Shikaki had been traveling from Libya to his home in Damascus, Syria, and stopped in Malta on Thursday. He never arrived in Damascus.

``If it is true, then the Mossad is to blame for the assassination,'' said Sheik Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad follower in Gaza. The Mossad, Israel's spy agency, has assassinated Palestinian guerrilla leaders in the Middle East and Europe in the past.

Israeli security sources confirmed to Israeli reporters that Shikaki, 43, was targeted by Mossad. His organization has claimed responsibility for several suicide bombing attacks that have killed 37 Israelis since the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel signed a peace accord in September 1993. Islamic Jihad opposes the accord.

- Los Angeles Times

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB