Said al-Muragha

Col. Sa'eed Musa al-Muragha (Arabic: سعيد مُراغة or سعيد موسى‎) (born 1927 in Silwan[1] – 29 January 2013)[2] was a Palestinian militant better known as Abu Musa.

Said al-Muragha
Native name
سعيد مُراغة
Nickname(s)Abu Musa
Born1927
Silwan, Mandatory Palestine
Died29 January 2013
Damascus, Syria
Buried
Damascus, Syria
AllegianceJordan (1948-1970)
PLO (1970-1983)
Fatah al-Intifada (1983-2013)
Service/branchJordanian Army
RankColonel
Battles/warsLebanon Civil War
Other workSecretary-General of Fatah al-Intifada

Early years

A Palestinian, Abu Musa joined the Jordanian Army in 1948 and rose to become commander of an artillery battalion in 1969.[1] During this period he was sent to receive a military education at the prestigious British Sandhurst Military Academy.[3] In October 1970, after the Black September fighting, Musa left the Jordanian army to join the PLO and relocated with most of the Palestinian Resistance to Lebanon.[1] Here Musa rose to command an alliance between the PLO and Lebanese militias, which fought the Syrians when Syria intervened in the Lebanese Civil War in 1976.[4] In 1978 the Syrian government unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate him.[1]

Split with Arafat

Musa became deputy chief of operations for the PLO[4] and led the PLO's defense of Beirut in 1982 from the Israelis.[1] However Musa fell out with Yassir Arafat, head of Fatah and PLO, in May 1983.[1] Musa publicly complained over corrupt practices within the PLO, especially the promotion of political appointees loyal to Arafat to important military posts.[1] He was also known for hardline views on Israel, and outspoken in his opposition to what he saw as Arafat's attempt to reach a negotiated solution to the conflict (see Rejectionist Front).[3]

In November 1983 Musa was expelled from the PLO's military[1] and he formed Fatah Uprising (or Fatah al-Intifada in Arabic) in opposition to Arafat.[1] With the backing of Syria, who opposed any negotiations with Israel, Musa led his followers to drive Arafat's PLO from northern Lebanon.[4]

In 1984 Musa led Fatah Uprising to join the Palestinian National Alliance in Damascus in opposition to the PLO but failed to get a majority of Palestinian support.[4] He would join the Palestinian National Salvation Front in 1985 and oppose the Oslo Accords in 1993.[1] Abu Musa retreated from his leadership role in the 1990s and would no longer be active from then on.[1]

gollark: ` assert is_alive([ [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0] ], 1, 1) == False (Java, obviously.)`
gollark: That's hard, and someone else will take a lot of it.
gollark: Factorio logic: 3.3MW of power (basically all the factory's consumption) goes through this one switch. The blue arcy stuff there is totally fine.
gollark: Sometimes Minecraft can just throw up beautiful scenes like that.
gollark: Well, that's all we can really aspire to do in life.

References
  1. "Musa Muragha, Saeid (Abu Musa)". Dictionary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 2005-01-01. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
  2. Pro-Syria Palestinian commander dies
  3. Rubin, Barry M. (1994). Revolution until victory?: the politics and history of the PLO. Harvard University Press. p. 62. ISBN 0-674-76803-5.
  4. "Abu Musa". Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004-01-01. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.