PLO Leader Killed in Lebanon Roadside Blast

Top PLO official Kamal Medhat and at least three of his bodyguards were killed by a roadside bomb near a refugee camp in southern Lebanon today, security officials tell al-Jazeera. Television footage showed Medhat’s car being blasted into a large crater. A Fatah spokesman said Medhat had been “assassinated,” while another said it was too soon to speculate who might be behind the attack.

Another Fatah official was killed in the same camp on Saturday, in a shooting related to a family dispute. Medhat had been headed to the camp for a meeting to reconcile those families. Abbas Zaki, the PLO’s Lebanon chief, was also in the camp, but wasn’t hurt in either incident. (More PLO stories.)