http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1398452005 Militant killed at Briton's home
BEN LYNFIELD IN JERUSALEM ISRAELI soldiers yesterday shot dead a suspected Palestinian militant at the home of a British woman who moved to the West Bank from Wales three years ago. Anne Gwynne said she was enjoying a drink with Mohammed Alassi and another man on the veranda of her home in Nablus when they were surrounded by Israeli soldiers who set off stun grenades. Mr Alassi fled out the back and tried to jump a wall when soldiers shot him in the leg and incapacitated him, Ms Gwynne said. The soldiers continued to shoot him at close range to ensure he was dead, she said. "They could have arrested him, he was lying on the ground," she added. The second man was arrested. The Israeli military said that Mr Alassi, 28, was a local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group and was responsible for a string of planned attacks against Israel. Islamic Jihad was responsible for a series of attacks on Israeli targets in recent months, including a suicide bombing outside a shopping centre in the Israeli resort town of Netanya on Tuesday, which killed five people. After the bombing, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, ordered his security forces to target Islamic Jihad's leaders, and other Israeli officials said the group was no longer covered by the five- month-old truce between Israel and the Palestinians that has led to a significant reduction in violence. Ms Gwynne said Mr Alassi was not in Islamic Jihad, but in the al- Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group responsible for scores of attacks on Israelis. Al-Aqsa officials said Mr Alassi had once been affiliated with Islamic Jihad, but broke off ties a year ago and became one of their militant leaders. The group said it would retaliate for his death. The Israeli army said that Ms Gwynne, also known as Hannah Alassi, was an activist who gave refuge to militants in her home. She said she was a journalist who made television documentaries and filed stories to radio stations and magazines on the Middle East conflict. Troops did not arrest her during the operation, and an Israeli army spokeswoman said she did not know if any further action would be taken. "The incident is under Shin Bet investigation," she said, referring to Israel's internal security service. Ms Gwynne, 67, originally from Aberystwyth, was a bank manager before she moved to Nablus in 2002, when she became interested in the Palestinian cause after attending a solidarity meeting with her daughter. She had planned to join the thousands of foreign volunteers who spend a few weeks each year picking olives, monitoring Israeli roadblocks and acting as human shields in solidarity with the Palestinians. But after several weeks in Nablus, during which time she was hit in the leg by shrapnel, she began to build contacts with militant Palestinians. Her current work centres on writing first-hand accounts of alleged atrocities committed by Israeli troops and includes interviews with Hamas' armed wing and other militia leaders in an attempt to "humanise them". The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the bombing, yesterday criticised the Israeli raid into Nablus and called on all sides to show restraint. "That is what we call a cycle of dirty violence," he said. "We believe that this will lead only to the destruction of the peace process." Hours later, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into a home in southern Israel, killing an Israeli - the first such death from a rocket since the beginning of the ceasefire in February. The Nablus raid and the rocket attack would significantly widen the confrontation beyond the declared battle already under way between Israel and Islamic Jihad, involving Fatah and other considerably larger Palestinian factions, sources warned. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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