Arafat allies die in shooying

SIDON (AP) - Masked gunmen burst into a crowded cafe in Sidon yesterday and shot dead three Palestinians linked with the mainstrean Fatah faction of the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, police said.

A Lebanese man and two Palestinians from Fatah were wounded, they said. The attack was believed to have been carried out by agents of the Palestinian radical Abu Nidal in the latest bout of killings between the Palestinian factions.

Police said the victims were Mustafa Ibrahim, a defector from Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council, and his two bodyguards. Ali Salim and Mahmoud Ajouri, Fatah members, and Mohammed Masri, the cafe owner's son, were wounded.