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November 2002 News http://www.aljazeerah.info |
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Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Israeli troops reoccupy Bethlehem By Nazir Majally, Arab News Staff BETHLEHEM, West Bank, 23 November — Israeli troops and armored vehicles took over the West Bank city of Bethlehem yesterday in a major offensive after a bus bombing on Thursday in occupied Jerusalem killed 11 people. The army also raided Jenin and Tubas. Soldiers began arresting Palestinians and sealed off the Church of the Nativity. The army arrested the father and brother of the man suspected of having blown himself up on the Jerusalem bus on Thursday, Palestinian police said. Troops arrived at the home of Nael Abu Hlayel, identified by Israeli security officials as the most likely suspect in the blast, in the village of Al-Khader, adjacent to Bethlehem. His father and his youngest brother Nazmi, 18, were arrested by soldiers who then blew up the house, police said. “We are currently controlling the whole city,” a local army commander said, vowing that troops would stay “as long as we have to hit the terror infrastructure in Bethlehem”. Soldiers conducted house-to-house searches. The army said it was searching for about 30 Palestinians in the city, some of them suspected of involvement in the bus bombing. Troops rounded up about 20 suspects in Bethlehem and 16 people elsewhere in the West Bank, most of them members of the Hamas which claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack. Army radio said one was a girl accused of planning a bombing. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters during a visit to a lookout near Bethlehem: “I have ordered the security forces to take all necessary steps in order to hurt those who try to harm us.” Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the Israeli raid “a military escalation” which violated international agreements. “Israel wants to destroy peace not only with the Palestinians but with the whole of the Middle East and with all Arab countries,” he said. “Israel violates every international treaties and international laws ... but we will persist in our steadfastness,” he added. Top Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said, “The reoccupation of Bethlehem, Jenin and Al-Qarada shows that Israel does not honor the agreements it has signed with the Palestinians. We condemn this serious escalation of violence that could impact the whole region and lead to even more violence,” he said. Troops also pursued the crackdown in the West Bank city of Jenin where Israeli armor backed by helicopters surrounded a refugee camp. A British UN aid worker was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the UN worker was killed by Israeli gunfire. “He was killed by the Israeli Army which shows the little consideration the army has for life,” Erekat said. The “murder of a British employee, chief of the reconstruction project in the Jenin refugee camp, constitutes a new Israeli crime,” Erekat added. Rene Aquarone, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Geneva, confirmed the death of an international staff member in Jenin. His UNRWA identity card named him as a Briton, Iain John Hook. The British Foreign Office also said the victim was British, and aged 54. The head of Jenin hospital, Dr. Mohammed Abu Ghali, said Hook was “hit by two Israeli M-16 bullets in the abdomen.” He said Israel had been barring all ambulances from freely circulating inside the camp. “They could not reach him on time and he arrived dead at the hospital,” Ghali said. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern at the Israeli Army’s refusal to let an ambulance get to the British UN official. “The full circumstances surrounding the incident have not yet been established, but the secretary-general is greatly disturbed by the fact that the Israeli defense forces refused immediate access for an ambulance which had been summoned by UNWRA to take Mr. Hook to hospital,” said Annan in a statement read by a spokesman. Also in Jenin, Israeli gunfire killed a 10-year-old boy, Palestinian doctors said. In Gaza, Palestinian security sources said a police officer was killed by a tank shell near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim. The army said he had been in a group of armed Palestinians attempting to infiltrate the settlement. Palestinians in Gaza also killed an Israeli soldier early yesterday, the army said. Meanwhile, new opinion polls of Likud members published in newspapers yesterday showed Sharon is maintaining a commanding lead of between 16 to 18 percentage points over Netanyahu. Whoever wins next Thursday’s leadership race is expected to be the next premier.
Kuwaiti cop involved in
US troops’ shooting arrested in Saudi Arabia RIYADH/KUWAIT CITY, 23 November 2002 — Saudi authorities have
arrested a Kuwaiti policeman accused of shooting two US soldiers in
Kuwait, and plan to hand him over to Kuwaiti authorities, the official
Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday. It quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying arrangements had been
made to extradite the suspect who fled across the border to Saudi Arabia
after the soldiers were shot outside Kuwait City on Thursday. The man, Khalid Mayser Al-Shammari, was arrested around 1 p.m. (1000
GMT), the source said without saying where. The neighboring countries were discussing his extradition to Kuwait,
the SPA news agency quoted another Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman as
saying. A Saudi security source and a Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry source,
both of whom asked not to be named, said procedures for handing over the
suspect were under way. The two wounded soldiers were reported to be in
serious but stable condition after being flown to a military hospital in
Kuwait City. Col. Rick Thomas, a spokesman at Camp Doha military base, told AFP
earlier their condition was labeled “serious but stable” and their
status remained the same. One was shot in the face and the other in the
shoulder. “I don’t think we’ve seen anything that indicates” it was an
attack involving “Al-Qaeda or some other terrorist organization,”
Thomas said. Asked if the shooting was considered an anti-American attack,
Thomas said, “I think until we finish the joint investigation” with
the Kuwaitis, the motive cannot be established. Kuwaiti newspapers yesterday said the suspect was not affiliated with
any religious group and that he had a history of psychological problems. A
senior Kuwaiti security source told AFP the suspect “had been admitted
to hospital three times for psychiatric treatment.” A US military spokesman said on Thursday they were shot while traveling
in a civilian vehicle between the Camp Doha military base on the northern
outskirts of Kuwait City and Arifjan, 35 miles to the south of the
capital. The incident was the latest in a series of incidents involving
some of the 10,000 US troops training near the Iraqi border.
Man
injured in Fujairah shoot-out
US awaits UAE report on shootout at airport Khaleej Times, 11/23/02
DUBAI - The US embassy said on Saturday it was waiting for the United Arab Emirates to report the results of an investigation into a shootout at an airport, which the US Navy also uses for logistics purposes. A spokesman at the US embassy in Abu Dhabi said "we're waiting for the results of a UAE government investigation" into a shootout, which the UAE authorities said occurred Friday at Fujairah airport. "We're guests at their airport," he said, adding the US Navy stations a "small logistic support unit" there. "It would be premature to comment on the motive or target of the attack," said an official in the embassy's public affairs office, speaking by telephone to AFP in Dubai. The official had been asked to comment on a front-page report in the Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al Awsat that a UAE customs officer opened fire while trying to break into an area of the airport where a US military helicopter was parked. The embassy official, who asked not to be named, said he did not know where the shooting occurred at the airport, or whether there was even a US helicopter there at the time. A UAE interior ministry official said on Friday that a customs worker was shot and seriously wounded in a shootout with police who tried to stop him from entering a "restricted area" of Fujairah airport. The employee tried to drive his "car into a prohibited area of Fujairah airport," which is near the coast along the Gulf of Oman in the UAE, said a ministry spokesman quoted by the official news agency WAM. The employee opened fire on airport security police, who had tried to stop him, and they returned fire, the spokesman said. He named the suspect as Mohamed Abdallah Al Abduli, but gave no other details about him or what may have motivated him. "Al Abduli was seriously wounded before being arrested and admitted to the hospital," the spokesman said, adding the incident "caused no casualties among the police, airport staff, or travellers." "The employee will be questioned by the competent authorities as soon as his state of health permits," the spokesman was quoted by WAM as saying. - AFP
Two Palestinians dead, four wounded in clash with
Israeli patrol boat
JERUSALEM - The Islamic Jihad said two of its members died when they blew up their tiny fishing vessel early Saturday alongside an Israeli naval patrol boat, in an attack that wounded four Israeli sailors. The two Palestinians, Jamal Ismail, 21, from the Maghazi refugee camp in southern Gaza, and Mohammad Al Masri, 19, from the northern town of Beit Hanun, blew themselves up alongside the Israeli vessel off the northern Gaza coast, a high-ranking member of Jihad told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The two martyr members of the Al Qods Brigades (Islamic Jihad's armed wing) blew up their boat near a Zionist boat off the northern Gaza coastline," the official said. The Israeli military said in statement four sailors had been wounded in the attack, which occurred off the coast near the Jewish settlement of Dugit. The fishing boat had been spotted moving towards Israeli waters, which are banned to Palestinian vessels, the statement said. A small naval patrol boat, the Dabour, was sent to the area to identify the boat. As it approached, the sailors identified two "suspicious figures" on the boat, it continued. "After several attempts to make contact, water was sprayed at the boat to force it out of the banned area. That had no effect. The patrol boat fired warning shots and after several minutes there was an explosion," the statement said. It did not say whether the Israeli shots had hit the boat or what happened to the two men on board. Following the explosion, the army slapped a ban on all boat traffic along the Gaza Strip's coast. - AFP
Iraqi held over attempt to assassinate Afghan defence minister Khaleej Times, 11/23/02
KABUL - An Iraqi man was in custody on Saturday after an attempt by suicide bombers to assassinate Afghan Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim was foiled, officials said. Mir Jan, defence ministry foreign relations chief, said the man, named as Botan Akram Tawfiq Horami from the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, was seized by intelligence agents as he neared Fahim's Kabul house laden with explosives. Jan, who corrected an earlier statement that two men had been arrested, said Afghan authorities had been following Horami long before his arrest Friday in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan area, home to many foreign embassies. According to Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, a press conference was due to be held later Saturday to give further details of the arrest. Jan earlier told AFP the attacker was from the organisation that last year killed Ahmad Shah Masood, the legendary leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance whose death was blamed on al-Qaeda extremists. "They were from the same group who martyred Masood, they are enemies of Afghanistan and the Afghan nation and they are terrorists," Jan told AFP. Fahim, a powerful member of the Northern Alliance which continues to dominate the government of President Hamid Karzai, survived an assassination attempt earlier this year in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Friday's arrest followed an explosion, initially blamed on a rocket, in a nearby residential area of Kabul. Commander Tony Grubb of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed there were no casualties from the incident late Thursday but said it was unlikely a rocket was involved. "The report concluded that evidence available at the scene points to a small charge of about 500 grammes or less. The charge appears to have been placed on the roof of a bus shelter and traces of TNT were found. "The matter has now been handed to police to continue and conclude the investigations." On Monday, Afghan police also uncovered a plot to destroy the main power station supplying Kabul. The capital has faced ongoing unrest since the defeat of the hardline Taliban regime late last year by a US-led military force. A series of bomb attacks culminated in a blast on September 5 in which 30 people were killed. Intelligence officials said the bombs were the work of Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants or former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's extremist Hezb-i-Islami party. - AFP
Australian PM calls for tolerance as Muslim clothing debate rages Khaleej Times, 11/23/02
SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Saturday called on his compatriots to exercise tolerance after initially failing to douse calls for Muslim women to change their religious clothing. Howard was responding to criticism that he appeared sympathetic to a suggestion from Australian cleric and New South Wales legislator Fred Nile that Muslim women be banned from wearing the chador, the head-to-foot dress favoured by some devout Muslim women. Nile suggested the chador could be used to conceal weapons or bombs. Howard this week initially refused to condemn Nile, saying he understood what he was getting at, but stopped short of agreeing with him. He softened his stance after media criticism on Saturday amid a hotbed atmosphere following the Bali bombing that killed 190 people, almost half of them Australian, which has been blamed on extremists. "There are some things that haven't changed and one of the things that hasn't changed and mustn't change is the character of Australia as a free and open and decent and tolerant nation," he said. "It's very important that we retain our sense of justified self-belief in the national virtues and values of Australia." - AFP
Riots rage in Nigeria on as Miss World contestants
flee
KADUNA - Riots raged on in the northern Nigerian city Kaduna on Saturday after violence there forced beauty pageant organisers to abandon plans to stage Miss World in Nigeria. Fighting which began as protest by Muslim youths against a newspaper article on the pageant has now degenerated into a bloody street war between Muslims and Christians. An AFP journalist was forced to join around a 1,000 refugees hiding in the Kronenbourg brewery in the south of the city near the main road to Abuja, protected by troops and an armoured car. "We had to run for our lives. They came to my house in two cars and tried to burn it. We really don't know what is happening," 20-year-old Julie Adabo told AFP. Another woman said that a gang came to kill her after burning her home and only let her live when she lied and claimed to be a Muslim. One man said he had seen his brother cut down before him. As she spoke, gunfire could be heard from the Trikania district around the plant and several buildings could be seen in flames. Rioting in Kaduna on Thursday claimed at least 100 lives. Many more are since thought to have perished. "Fighting continued until 11.30 pm (2230) GMT in this area. It started again at 6.30 am. We hear gunfire permanently," said the plant's French manager Regis Bouffartigue. "The soldiers shoot and the demonstrators return fire. According to the soldiers, the demonstrators even have AK47s (assault rifles)," he said. Miss World's organisters announced early Saturday that they would quit Nigeria and seek to hold the December 7 ceremony, which was set for the Nigerian capital Abuja, in London instead. - AFP
Bush,
Putin say Iraq must obey UN arms calls
Powell
says U.S. can fight in summer
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