DAMASCUS: Palestinian fighter Said Marragha, alias Abu Musa, died of illness Tuesday in Syria where his Fatah-Intifada group was based decades after splitting from the mainstream Fatah faction, his group said.

Abu Musa "died at dawn at a hospital" in Damascus, succumbing to a long illness, a Fatah-Intifada spokesman said, adding the veteran military commander would be buried in Syria's capital following noon Muslim prayers on Wednesday.

Abu Musa, 85, who held the rank of colonel and had close ties with both Syria and Iran, rebelled against the Fatah faction of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1983 and set up his own group, Fatah-Intifada.

Backed by the Syrian army, which was then deployed in Lebanon, he helped chase Fatah from that country during heavy clashes.

Fatah-Intifada is among several radical Syria-based Palestinian groups hostile to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and in favour of the armed struggle against the Jewish State.