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Israel
Assassinates Al Aqsa Brigades Leader
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| Karmi, 30,
the latest victim of Israel’s assassination policy
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NABLUS,
West Bank, Jan. 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A leader of the
Palestinian resistance movement linked to Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat's
Fatah was killed in a blast in the West Bank town of Tulkarem Monday,
Palestinian security officials said, blaming Israel, news agencies reported.
Hospital
sources in Tulkarem confirmed the death of Raed Al Karmi, 30, the leader of the
town's branch of the Al Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah movement.
They said he was killed while walking to work in the east of the town, while
Israeli security sources, quoted by army radio, said he was in a vehicle.
Palestinian
sources said Karmi was driving near the town's cemetery in an area formally
under full Palestinian control when the automobile exploded, killing him
instantly, Israel's daily Ha'aretz reported.
The Israeli sources said he was wanted by Israel in connection with the murder
of two Israeli restaurant owners killed in Tulkarem in January last year, and
should have been in prison, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Israel had tried to assassinate Karmi September 6, 2001, when helicopters fired
rockets at his vehicle. Two other Palestinian activists were killed in that
attack.
Israel
assassinated more than 70 Palestinian resistance activists in the past few
months in an assassination policy adopted and approved by the Israeli cabinet.
The last such operation, acknowledged by Israel, took place on December 10, when
missile-firing Israeli helicopter gunships targeted a senior Islamic Jihad
figure in the West Bank town of Hebron. The activist, Mohammed Sider, escaped,
but two Palestinian children were killed in the attack.
Karmi's
death brings to 1,133 the number of people killed since the Palestinian intifada
started in September 2000, including 873 Palestinians -- mostly children and
teenagers -- and 238 Israelis.
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