ABSTRACT
On 27 December 1985, two hit-teams of the Abu Nidal group attacked simultaneoulsy El-Al ticket counters at the Rome and Vienna air tenninals. The handgrenade and machinegun attacks killed 18 passengers and wounded 114. The locations of these terrorist attacks were well chosen from the standpoint of the attackers. The governments of both countries targeted had been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supported a negotiated solution to the conflict which would include the mainstream PLO. The choice of the Israeli airline counters as initial targets and the presence of Americans among the victims were of secondary importance to the mastenninds behind the attack. In the queer logic of inter-Palestinian rivalries these acts were aimed at Arafat, meant to embarrass him in the eyes of Austria and Italy, the two European countries most sympathetic to the leader of the mainstream PLO. Furthennore, they were designed to disturb the ongoing joint PLO-Jordanian initiative.
