The Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, Mahmoud Abbas, has escaped an apparent assassination attempt.

Abbas was attacked on Sunday night by unknown militants at the mourning tent erected to receive condolences for late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Two people were killed in the ensuing gunfire.

Witnesses said Abbas was later escorted to Palestinian headquarters.

But former Palestinian interior security minister Mohamed Dahlan denied later that there was an assassination attempt targeting Mahmoud Abbas. This was echoed by a member of the PLO executive committee, saying that what happened was due to overcrowding in the tent.

(CRI November 15, 2004)