Abu Ali Iyad Walid Ahmad Nimer al - Naser ( ) ( 1934 – July 23 , 1971 ) better known by his " nom de guerre " Abu Ali Iyad ( ) was a senior Palestinian field commander based in Syria and Jordan during the 1960s and early 1970s . After a career of teaching in the West Bank , Iraq , Saudi Arabia and Algeria , he was recruited into the paramilitary group , Fatah , by Khalil al - Wazir in 1964 after graduating from an Algerian military training course . A year later , he became one of Fatah ' s first leaders in Syria along with al - Wazir and Yasser Arafat . During his time there , he gained a position on the organization ' s top political body , supervised a major Fatah guerrilla training camp and set up a military intelligence headquarters . As Fatah field commander , he took part in the Battle of Karameh with Israel , gaining a reputation as an unyielding commander . Abu Ali Iyad was also a leading organizer and participant in guerrilla raids into Israeli localities . He was one of the last remaining Palestinian commanders fighting the Jordanian Army in the follow - up battles after the Black September conflict in Jordan . He was killed in the countryside around Ajlun and Jerash by Jordanian forces in July 1971 . His partisans claimed he was executed and as retaliation , they assassinated Jordanian prime minister Wasfi al - Tal four months after Abu Ali Iyad ' s death . Early life . In 1934 , Abu Ali Iyad was born in Qalqilyah in the modern - day West Bank when Palestine was under the British Mandate . He was educated there , graduating from high school in 1953 and taught at schools in the city and nearby Azzun . A year later , he moved to Baquba , Iraq where he enrolled in a teacher training program . He left Iraq the same year , moving to Saudi Arabia to teach there afterward . In 1962 , he had a job as a teacher in Algeria . However , he soon sought and received training by the Algerian Army , graduating from its training course in the summer of 1964 . Fatah command . While in Algeria , Abu Ali Iyad was recruited into the Palestinian nationalist paramilitary organization Fatah by the leader of its armed wing Khalil al - Wazir . He adopted his " nom de guerre " after joining . Fatah at the time was divided politically with the more non - violent leadership based in Kuwait and those supporting attacks against Israel based in Syria . Abu Ali Iyad , along with al - Wazir , Yasser Arafat , and three others in the Syrian camp , formed the organization ' s " emergency " field command in Damascus in 1965 . A year later al - Wazir , Arafat , and much of the Fatah military leadership were arrested by Syrian authorities loyal to Hafez al - Assad ( who was Defense Minister at the time ) as suspects in the murder of a pro - Assad paramilitary leader , Yusef Urabi . As a result , Abu Ali Iyad , al - Wazir ' s wife Intissar al - Wazir and fellow Fatah commander Ahmad Attrush were put in charge of Fatah ' s leadership in Syria . They formed a secret committee whose purpose was maintaining the military operations of Fatah ' s armed wing , al - Assifa , against Israel , launching attacks from Lebanon and Jordan and thus co - opting al - Assad ' s efforts to circumvent their activity . Abu Ali Iyad himself was arrested later by the Syrian authorities . He was released along with Arafat and two other Fatah leaders in August . Abu Ali Iyad then met al - Assad in person to sign an agreement on the terms of Fatah ' s presence and activities in Syria . Following the release of the rest of Fatah ' s leadership , the Central Committee of Fatah — the organization ' s highest decision - making body , was reformed . Two of Arafat ' s rivals lost their positions in the new central committee and were replaced by his allies , Abu Ali Iyad and Salah Khalaf , tilting the balance of power within Fatah towards Syria instead of Kuwait . Abu Ali Iyad ' s position gave him responsibility for al - Assifa ' s operations against Israel from Syria and Lebanon . By the end of the year , he had personally led raids against a number of village s in northeastern Israel , including Kfar Giladi , Manara , Margaliot , and Beit Yosef . In the latter village , his unit was responsible for wounding two civilians and destroying three houses by explosives . Also after his release , in 1966 , Abu Ali Iyad became the chief military instructor of a training camp for Fatah recruits in the city of Hama in central Syria . He modeled it based on the Algerian training camp he graduated from . Most of his pupils were university students who would soon form Fatah ' s new guerrilla force . Abu Ali Iyad ' s course was the only one of its kind run by Fatah itself ( often commanders would train in Algeria ) and it provided the bulk of commanders for the group ' s guerrilla units for the next decade . These mostly young recruits became known as " Tiger Cubs . " Among their ranks , Abu Ali Iyad gained a reputation for enforcing strict discipline . According to British Middle East expert , Patrick Seale , he also had a " fierce appearance " that left his soldiers in " awe " ; after a malfunction while he was experimenting with explosives , he lost an eye and damaged one of his legs . In 1968 , Abu Ali Iyad set up a Fatah headquarters for military intelligence in Dera ' a , southern Syria . Its principal task was to penetrate the Jordanian Army and security agencies . Commander in Jordan . He moved to Jordan in 1968 where he trained Fatah forces in Ajlun . Palestinian fedayeen activity persisted following the collective Arab defeat in the 1967 Six - Day War and Israel sought to end guerrilla attacks on its territory by launching an offensive against the Palestinian Liberation Organization ' s ( PLO ) bases in Jordan . A major confrontation ensued between the Israeli Army and Fatah which came to be known as the Battle of Karameh . Abu Ali Iyad was a senior commander during the battle , gaining prominence and respect among the Palestinians for his performance as an unyielding military officer . Although Fatah took heavy losses , Israel eventually withdrew after the Jordanian Army entered the fray on Fatah ' s side . He continued to organize raids against Israeli army camps and towns in Israel and the West Bank while he was based in Jordan . Relations between the PLO and King Hussein of Jordan began to deteriorate after Karameh , climaxing in September 1970 when armed conflict ensued between Palestinian and Jordanian forces . Prior to Jordanian military action , Abu Ali Iyad lobbied his colleagues in Fatah , who supported the forced ousting of the king , to withdraw from Amman and return to the countryside closer to the border with Israel . Palestinian factions did not heed his calls and their military bases in Amman were shelled by Jordanian forces . On September 17 , an emergency meeting of PLO factions was held with the majority of those attending favoring confrontation with King Hussein ' s troops . Supporting al - Wazir , who was one of the few delegates to have reservations , Abu Ali Iyad argued against confrontation and warned that expectations of Syrian intervention on the side of the Palestinians was improbable . The Jordanians succeeded in defeating PLO forces in Amman and about 2 , 000 Palestinian guerrillas under al - Wazir ' s leadership evacuated the city northward to Ajlun . Abu Ali Iyad was part of the field command there along with al - Wazir . They headed a force of roughly 2 , 500 guerrillas in the hilly terrain around Ajlun and Jerash . Their position was vulnerable due to the ineffectiveness of Palestinian guerrilla warfare against Jordanian armor in open areas versus urban warfare in the cities and Palestinian refugee camps . Most of the PLO leadership , including Arafat and al - Wazir , and hundreds of guerrillas escaped Jordan in April 1971 following pressure from Arab states , confiscation of weapons by the Jordanian Army and the closing of PLO offices in Amman . Abu Ali Iyad refused to do so , however , and he and his Tiger Cubs stayed put in their Ajlun base where they continued to fight the Jordanian Army . On July 12 , King Hussein ordered the evacuation of all guerrilla forces from the strategic mountain in the center of their stronghold in Ajlun . Hussein personally offered to allow Abu Ali Iyad to depart unharmed if he abandoned his fighters . He refused and Hussein ordered his troops to track down and kill him within the framework of routing out remaining PLO forces in northern Jordan . A Jordanian infantry division and armored brigade backed by 10 , 000 Bedouin foot soldiers immediately launched an offensive afterward . By July 16 , Palestinian positions had been secured by the Jordanian Army . During the Jordanian offensive , 200 - 250 guerrillas had been killed and 70 - 100 of Abu Ali ' s troops fled , crossing the Jordan River to the Israeli - occupied West Bank . Death and aftermath . In early July , prior to the offensive , Abu Ali sent letters to Fatah leaders chastising them for surrendering to King Hussein ' s forces , stating in defiance " We will die on our feet rather than kneel . " On July 23 , he was reported killed by the Jordanian Army . According to Yezid Sayigh who documented the history of Palestinian guerrilla warfare , Abu Ali was " executed " during mop - up operations by the Jordanian Army sometime on July 17 – 18 . Jordanian Bedouin troops tied his corpse to a tank and dragged it through several northern villages that had large Palestinian populations . The PLO claimed he was captured and tortured to death by Jordanian forces prior . Another version of events by Abu Ali ' s partisans was that the Jordanian prime minister at the time , Wasfi al - Tal , was personally responsible for his torture . His partisans sought vengeance for his killing and a splinter group developed within Fatah consisting of men from the Tiger Cubs and other Fatah dissidents . It came to be known as the Black September Organization ( BSO ) and Abu Ali ' s men provided its initial membership . On November 28 , one of his former Tiger Cubs , Munshir al - Khalifa , assassinated al - Tal in Cairo . According to Seale , this was the first attack carried out by the BSO . Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dedicated the poem " Returning to Jaffa " to Abu Ali Iyad .