In Iraq, the Palestinian hijacker Abu Abbas died in U.S. military custody. U.S. officials said he died of natural causes likely of a heart attack or stroke. In 1985 he masterminded the hijacking of an Italian passenger ship during which a wheelchair-bound American tourist was killed and thrown overboard. The Palestinian Authority had been demanding his release from U.S. custody, saying Washington had pledged not to prosecute him as part of a blanket agreement not to press charges against Palestinians who acted against Israel before interim peace accords were signed in the 1990s.