Jordanian MP: I Carried out an Attack on an El Al/Mossad Compound in Athens in 1969

Jordanian MP Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad recounted in a December 9, 2019 interview on A One TV (Jordan) that he had carried out a high-profile terrorist attack that claimed the lives of several Mossad agents in Athens, Greece on December 27, 1969. He said that the Mossad compound he attacked had been disguised as a newspaper booth adjacent to an El Al office, adding that the Israeli agents “dropped like leaves in the middle of fall.” Explaining that the attack was carried out in broad daylight because that was when it was least expected, Mourad said that he had adhered to international law by issuing a warning to the Greek government that the compound would be targeted. He also explained that he had been inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s mantra that what is taken by force can be regained only by force and that he had made the decision to avenge the blood of Muslims and Arabs that had been shed by the "occupying and invading murderers." It is unclear what terrorist attack Mourad was referring to. There was an attack on El Al flight 253 in Athens a year earlier, on December 26, 1968, but Mourad's name is not listed among the perpetrators.