Palestinian leader Ahmed Jibril laid to rest in Syria 

Palestinians turned out in Damascus today to mourn Ahmed Jibril, whose Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command fought Israel in the 1970s and 1980s, Reuters reports.

Relatives and members of factions joined a convoy taking his body to the city’s Al-Othman Mosque and then on to the cemetery at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.

“Before he died he said that during this long struggle he never sold his principles or gave up and we shouldn’t either,” Khaled Jibril, his son and the group’s director of military and security, told Reuters.

Ahmed Jibril, who died on Wednesday aged 83, founded his PFLP-GC in 1968 after splitting from the PFLP of Palestinian nationalist leader George Habash.

In 1979, the PFLP – General Command held a prisoner swap with Israel. Some 76 Palestinian detainees were released in exchange for one Israeli soldier.

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Jibril negotiated a prisoner swap between the PLO factions and Israel in 1985 when 1,150 Palestinian prisoners were released in return for three Israeli soldiers. Jibril was long at odds with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas over peace accords with Israel.

His funeral was attended by the Iranian Ambassador in Damascus, leaders of Palestinian factions in Syria and top officials from Syria’s ruling party. Jibril was criticised for his support for the Assad regime in Syria, which didn’t waiver in spite of the current war.

His youngest son, Mohamed Bader, led the prayers over the coffin which was draped with the Palestinian flag.