Omar Shibli, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation front

The Palestine liberation Organization on Saturday elected Omar Shibli as a new secretary general in succession for the former secretary general Muhammad Abbas ( Abu al-Abbas) who died in one American prison in Iraq one month ago.

The spokesman for the front in the West Bank, Wasel Abu Youssef, said that the " leadership of the front elected Omar Shibli ( known as Abu Ahmad Halab ) as a secretary general in succession of martyrs Abu al-Abbas."

He explained that the leadership of the front decided to form a preliminary committee to prepare for a general conference for the front within a period not to exceed one year. Shibli was the front's deputy secretary general. He was born in al-Teira, to the south of Haifa in 1945 and currently lives in Gaza after he had returned back to the Palestinian territories in 1994.

The American forces detained Abbas several days after the collapse of Baghdad on April 14 and he died in an American prison in Iraq on March 9th.