Syria Today | Planner of Munich attack dies in Damascus

Planner of Munich attack dies in Damascus

Mohammed Oudeh, the Palestinian militant famous for planning the Munich Olympics attacks in 1972, died in Damascus on July 3.

Oudeh died of kidney failure a day after he fell ill and was rushed to the capital's Al-Andalus Hospital, his granddaughter Hana Oudeh told the AP news agency. He was 73.

On the day of his death, his coffin was taken to the Al-Wasim Mosque in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the southern outskirts of Damascus. After prayers, a crowd of about 500 people accompanied his coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, as it was carried to the camp's Martyrs' Cemetery for burial.

Oudeh, who did not directly participate in the attack in Munich, was best known by his nom de guerre Abu Daoud. A number of Palestinian officials attended the services, including several from the political parties of Fatah and Islamic Jihad.

Oudeh was born in Silwan in East Jerusalem in 1937. As a young man he worked as a mathematics and physics teacher in a Palestinian school. He later became a lawyer. In 1967, he was forced to flee his home city during the six-day Arab-Israeli war. Oudeh then moved to Jordan where he joined the Palestine Liberation Organisation and later helped found its militant offshoot, Fatah.

As a leader of the Fatah-affiliated group Black September, Oudeh coordinated the 1972 kidnapping of 11 Israeli Olympians during the Olympic Games in what was then West Germany. It was intended to force Israel to trade the hostages for the release of 236 Palestinian prisoners, but Israel rejected the offer, leading to a standoff. Within 24 hours of the kidnapping, all the hostages and five of the eight kidnappers were killed in ensuing clashes and a botched rescue attempt.

Israel promised revenge and in 1981 Oudeh survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot 13 times while sitting in a hotel coffee shop in Warsaw, Poland.

Oudeh had resided in Syria since the publication of his 1999 book, Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich, in which he admitted to coordinating the attacks. Israel subsequently barred him from returning to the West Bank, a decision he disputed.

Oudeh rejected the term 'terrorist' to describe himself. In a 2006 interview with the AP news agency, Oudeh said he had no qualms about the Munich operation because he considered the Israeli athletes, as military reservists, legitimate targets. In the same interview, he said the attack had raised the profile of the Palestinian cause around the world.

In his book, Oudeh wrote that he regretted the outcome of the Munich assault. He had hoped the event would create sympathy for the Palestinian cause, but it backfired and instead created sympathy for the Israeli athletes.

Oudeh remained committed to his lifelong opposition to Israeli occupation of his homeland. Shortly before his death, he released a statement addressed to Israel that said: "Today, I cannot fight you anymore, but my grandson will and his grandsons, too."

He is survived by his wife, five daughters and a son.