Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of an Italian passenger ship in which an American tourist was killed, has died in US custody in Iraq, CNN reports quoting Palestinian officials.

Abbas was the head of a Palestinian splinter group -- Palestine Liberation Front -- when he and his men hijacked Achille Lauro. The militants threw a Jewish American tourist Leon Klinghoffer overboard.

US forces captured Abbas in Iraq in April.  CNN also quoted an US official confirming that Abbas recently died of natural causes.

The Palestinian Authority had demanded that Abbas be released, referring to the US promise not to press charges against Palestinians who had acted against Israel before interim peace accords were signed in the 1990s.

The US also endorsed a 1995 interim peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, which grants PLO members immunity for violent acts committed before September 1993, when the two sides signed a mutual recognition agreement.

Abu Abbas has been a marginal figure in the PLO. Abbas, 55, was a member of the PLO's executive committee, but left in 1991. His tiny faction has very few followers in the West Bank and Gaza.

Agencies