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Jordan blast killed Palestinians' military intel chief

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, November 14, 2005

GAZA CITY — Two senior Palestinian security officials died in the Al Qaida suicide strikes in Jordan, Palestinian Authority officials said.

PA military intelligence chief Gen. Bashir Nafie was among the 56 casualties. Nafie was in Amman for talks with Jordanian security officials.

The PA said Interior Ministry director-general Col. Abd Elwan was also killed in the Al Qaida suicide strikes. Officials said Elwan was also part of the PA mission at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman.

Nafie runs one of the smaller PA security agencies, with about 1,000 officers, Middle East Newsline reported. Military intelligence has dealt mostly with espionage and dissidence and many of its officers were active in the Palestinian war against Israel.

The officials said that in all, four Palestinians were killed by the blast in Amman on Nov. 9.

The two other Palestinians killed in the attack were former PA Communications Ministry director-general Musab Khurma and Jihad Fatuh, a commercial attache in the Palestinian embassy in Cairo. They, too, were said to have been in Jordan on business.

Officials said Palestinians were the main victims of the Al Qaida strikes. They said one of the hotels bombed, the Days Inn, contained 130 Palestinian employees and was owned by a family in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The attacks also killed an Israeli Arab businessman and a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem. U.S. diplomats said an American movie producer was also killed in the attacks and two others were injured.

Jordanian officials said 12 foreigners were among the casualties. A Bahraini national was identified as one of the victims. Authorities have arrested several Iraqi nationals as suspects.

Elwan was part of the PA attempt to reform the security forces. The effort has been opposed by PA security commanders and officers, who have warned of rampant corruption and anarchy.


Copyright © 2005 East West Services, Inc.

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