Abu Abbas, born Muhammad Zaidan, was the founder and leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF). He gained international notoriety for orchestrating the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro, which resulted in the murder of a passenger. Initially aligned with Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, he later broke away to form the more radical PLF. Abbas was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003 and died in American custody the following year.