JERUSALEM Ñ Israel has apprehended 15 members of an Iraqi-sponsored insurgency network in the West Bank.

The captured cell was organized by the Palestine Liberation Front and based in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jenin, Israeli security officials said.

The PLF is headed by Mahmoud Abbas who lives in Iraq, masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro and is chairman of the Palestine National Council.

The officials said PLF members had received funding, arms and military training in Iraq in the use of light weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and hand grenades. The training also included the use and production of explosives and detonation systems, Middle East Newsline reported.

"The group wanted to attack high-value targets, such as power stations and the Ben-Gurion Airport," an Israeli security source said. The 15 members were captured over a six-month period, officials said.

Abbas's deputy, Ala Hasin, who participated in the 1985 piracy of the Achille Lauro, was responsible for the group's training camps, logistics and operations, officials said.

Iraq provided the financing for the insurgency network, which was said to have carried out several bombings and smuggled military supplies through the Palestinian Authority.

Officials said some of the weapons were smuggled in the vehicle of PA security chief Gen. Abdul Razek Yehiye. Yehiye, as a senior official in the PA, was not subject to Israeli searches at border crossings.

The network was announced soon after Israeli security officials disclosed a change in policy that banned Iraqi aid to the Palestinian Authority. Such aid was allowed during the previous government of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

So far, officials said, Israel has detained more than 15 people from the pro-Iraqi group. They said one detainee, Mamoun Hamdan, of the West Bank city of El Bireh, obtained 400 kilograms of materials to construct bombs.

In a related development on Monday, the military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack at the Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip, when a Hamas member blew himself up and injured two Israeli border guards.

The military wing of Fatah also released a statement on Monday which said that the group had recently attempted to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an ambush near his home in east Jerusalem. The statement said that Fatah would continue to attempt to assassinate the prime minister. Three Palestinians belonging to the Fatah cell that planned the attack on Sharon are currently in Israeli custody.

[On Sunday, a military convoy which included Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz was ambushed by Palestinian bombs and semi-automatic fire.

Nobody was hurt and Israeli military sources said unidentified Palestinian insurgents were apparently unaware that Mofaz was in the convoy near the West Bank city of Hebron.

But on Monday, a radical group belonging to Palestinian Authority Chairman's Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement took responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the group said it planted the two bombs that exploded. "Fighters of the Popular Army-Brigades of the Return detonated two explosives near the car of the military Zionist chief Shaul Mofaz in Hebron. The occupation claimed that no damage was done while the car was totallly destroyed," the statement said.]

Print this Article

Email this article

Free Headline Alerts