PFLP-GC Elects New Leader After Jibril’s Death

AFP file photo of Ahmed Jibril
AFP file photo of Ahmed Jibril
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PFLP-GC Elects New Leader After Jibril’s Death

AFP file photo of Ahmed Jibril
AFP file photo of Ahmed Jibril

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command announced on Sunday that it named a new leader after its longtime founder died.

Talal Naji was elected during a meeting in Damascus. He will replace Ahmed Jibril, who died on July 7 after being sick for months.

Naji was born in Nazareth in British-ruled Palestine in 1946. He studied in Syrian schools and joined the ranks of the Palestinian Liberation Front faction in 1962 before later joining the PFLP-GC.

Naji, who had lost an arm and an eye in a grenade explosion reportedly while training, had been the deputy chief of the PFLP-GC since 1973. He obtained a doctorate in political science from Moscow in 1984, The Associated Press reported.

Khaled Jibril, the son of the late leader, was named as his deputy, it said.



Roadside Bomb Wounds Four in Iraq's Kirkuk

Security forces in Iraq. (AFP file photo)
Security forces in Iraq. (AFP file photo)
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Roadside Bomb Wounds Four in Iraq's Kirkuk

Security forces in Iraq. (AFP file photo)
Security forces in Iraq. (AFP file photo)

A roadside bomb wounded four people in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Saturday, police sources said.
The bomb targeted a commercial district in the city center. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, according to Reuters.
Earlier in the week, four Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others injured in an ambush on an army convoy southwest of Kirkuk, which ISIS militants claimed responsibility for.
Despite the group's defeat in 2017, remnants continue to conduct hit-and-run attacks against government forces.