Japanese Red Army Member Okamoto Dies in Lebanon

Cairo, July 23 (Jiji Press)--Kozo Okamoto, a Japanese Red Army member on an international wanted list as a perpetrator of a deadly shooting attack on an Israeli international airport in 1972, died in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, a Palestinian group said Thursday. He was 78.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine did not announce the cause of his death. A senior PFLP member said in a telephone interview that Okamoto died around noon Thursday local time after suffering poor health due to old age.

His body will be buried around Beirut, the senior member said. The PFLP provided protection to Okamoto, who was from Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

The PFLP said in a statement that it mourns his death, calling Okamoto a fighter who made enormous sacrifices for the cause of Palestine.

Okamoto joined an extremist group as a student of Kagoshima University. After leaving Japan in February 1972 to find a base for his activities, he worked with the PFLP. His older brother, Takeshi, was a member of the group that hijacked the Japan Airlines “Yodo” jet in 1970 and is said to have died in North Korea.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]