Terrorist who commanded infamous 1987 glider attack killed in Syria

A Syrian militia claimed Monday that an alleged Israeli airstrike northeast of Quneitra, near the Israel-Syria border, on Sunday, was in fact a surgical strike meant to assassinate an operative involved in an infamous terrorist attack that took place in northern in Israel in the late 1980s.

Arab media outlets reported Sunday that Israeli fighter jetsstruckthe Nabe' al-Fawar base in the outskirts of Quneitra, killing three people. The base was reportedly used by the so-called "homeland protection" militia.

The report of a strike was not corroborated by any Israeli source.

On Monday, however, the Jibril Front, a militia whose troops fight with the Syrian army against rebel forces, distributed flyers confirming that Palestinian terrorist Abd al-Rahim Ahmed Atik, who commanded the 1987 Night of the Gliders attack in northern Israel, was killed in the strike, saying he was assassinated by Israel.

The Night of the Gliders attack took place on Nov. 25, 1987, when two Palestinian terrorists infiltrated Israel from Southern Lebanon using hang gliders. While security forces were able to kill one terrorist almost immediately upon landing, the other was able to infiltrate an IDF base near the border, kill six soldiers and wound eight others before being shot dead by other soldiers.

Atik, who masterminded dozens of terrorist attacks, was the commander of the "Palestine force" in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command, founded in the late 1960s by archterrorist Ahmed Jibril.

While an official with the Jibril Front said Atik died in Syria late Saturday night, the lack of any further information sparked rumors that he had been killed in the strike near Quneitra, which happened in the very early hours of Sunday morning.

Some media reports alleged the Israeli strike did not target Atik, saying he was killed because he was "in the wrong place in the wrong time."

Furthermore, Syrian media released the name of the other people killed in the strike, and Atik was not among them. It seems Syrian authorities do not link the terrorist's death to the alleged Israeli strike.