Shlomo Argov - Attempted Assassination

Attempted Assassination

On 3 June 1982, three men, Hussein Ghassan Said, Marwan al-Banna, and Nawaf al-Rosan approached Argov as he got into his car after a banquet at the Dorchester Hotel, in Park Lane, London. Said shot Argov in the head. Argov was not killed, but he was gravely injured. He was rushed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, where he was transferred to a specialist unit and underwent emergency brain surgery. He remained in a coma for three months.

The attempted assassins were members of Abu Nidal's organization, a Palestinian terrorist splinter group from the PLO. The attack was ordered by the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Al-Banna was Abu Nidal's cousin, Said a Jordanian and the third of Argov's would-be assassins, Al-Rosan, was a Baghdad intelligence colonel. The gunman, Said, was shot by the bodyguard and also sustained serious head injuries and, like Argov, survived. The two uninjured assassins fled the scene but were arrested shortly afterwards in a London flat. It appeared that they were next planning to kill Nabil Ramlawi, the PLO representative in London.

The attackers were convicted, and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 30 to 35 years. Subsequently two became mentally ill, and were transferred to high security hospitals in the UK. There was some speculation in Israel at the time that the British security services were aware of the plot. Lord Alton of Liverpool failed to draw the government into commenting on the speculation when he raised the issue in the House of Lords.

The attempt on Argov's life was used as a justification for the 1982 Lebanon War. Israel invaded Lebanon on 6 June. The war saw the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon, although the would-be assassins were not members of the PLO.