Israel captures 15 insurgents
in Iraqi-backed network
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
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.]
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