Black September

Black September was a Palestinian organization, founded in 1970. It had links to various groups within the PLO, most notably Fatah and the PFLP. Sources claim that the organization was controlled by Yasser Arafat, the leader of PLO, but this has never been proven.

The name "Black September" comes from the fighting between Palestinians and Jordanian officials in September 1970. This month was called "The Black September" because the Arabs fought against themselves instead of the Israelis. (See History of Jordan). The first action of the group was to assassinate the Jordanian Prime Minister, Wasfi Tel, on November 28, 1971. Wasfi Tel was instrumental in expelling the Palestinan fighters from Jordan in 1970-71.

Its most well-known act was the "Munich massacre", the kidnapping and killing of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

Other actions attributed to Black September include:

• December 1971: Attempted assassination of Jordan's Ambassador to London, Zeid Al Rifai.
• February 1972: Sabotage of a West German electrical installation and a Dutch gas plant.
• May 1972: Hijacking of a Belgian Sabena airplane flying from Vienna to Tel Aviv
• March 1 1973: Attack on the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum, killing the American chargé d'affaires J. Curtis Moore, the American ambassador, Cleo Noel, and the Belgian chargé d'affaires, Guy Eid.

After the March 1973 attack, the organization was disbanded, apparently under pressure from the PLO, which saw that the terrorist acts only damaged the Palestinan cause.

After 1974, when the Abu Nidal Organization split from the PLO, the Abu Nidal group started associating the "Black September" name with some of its actions. The PFLP also used the "Black September" name on some occasions. Most likely, these groups had little or nothing to do with the original Black September group.