Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

The PLF is a Palestinian organization centered in Lebanon. It was set up in April 1977 as a result of a split in the the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine - General Command led by Ahmad Jibril. The new organization was headed by Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas) and Tal'at Ya'akub.

The organization split again into three small organizations in 1983-1984. Each faction continued to carry the original name and each claimed to represent the mother-organization. In November 1989 Abu Abbas's and Tal'at Ya'akub's factions reunited again, after Tal'at Ya'akub's death. The general secretary, Abu Abbas, was elected to the PLO's executive committee and the organization became in fact a satellite of Fatah.

The PLF staged a strategy of "armed struggle" against Israel, mainly by terrorist attacks through the Lebanese border. The Abu Abbas faction was responsible for the famous hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 and the 1990 failed seaborne attack against the Israeli coast, both acts which embarrassed the PLO leadership. After the Oslo agreement the main PLF faction accepted PLO's policy of stopping terrorist activity against Israel.