Posted on 10/16/2003 6:57:25 AM PDT by SJackson
The agents will stay away from Gaza, allowing Israelis to gather the evidence; PA arrests 8 suspects.
A special team of FBI investigators and forensic experts has landed in Israel Thursday afternoon to launch a probe into Wednesday's deadly road bomb attack on a US diplomatic convoy, in which three US body guards were killed.
The FBI agents do not intend to go immediately to the site of the attack, the first to target US officials in the past three years of Intifada (despite previous attempts). Instead, they will rely on Israeli security officials, including Shin Bet investigators, to collect and preserve evidence, with the FBI doing the detailed examinations of what is found, FBI officials in Washington said. On Wednesday, US investigators at the scene were greeted by rock-throwing Palestinians and were quick to depart.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel views the attack as gravely "as if it were committed against IDF soldiers or Israeli citizens."
Hours after the attack, Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz telephoned National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and told her that the attack was deliberately directed at the Americans. "I promise to do all that is necessary and possible to help apprehend the terrorist cell that perpetrated the attack," Mofaz told Rice.
He also told her he instructed that all intelligence information Israel can gather on the attack be handed over to the Americans and he personally instructed that Israeli security forces fully cooperate with the FBI and other American investigators, an official in Mofaz's office said.
Meanwhile, and under heavy pressure from Washington, Palestinian police arrested eight members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a terror umbrella organization, during a nighttime raid in Jebaliya refugee camp in Gaza Strip.
The eight are members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group that consists largely of former Palestinian security officials and disgruntled members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, the security officials said. A spokesman for the Committees denied the Organization's involvement in the attack.
The eight were arrested in the Jebaliya refugee camp, which is near the site of Wednesday's attack.
One of those arrested in Jebaliya was identified as Ahmed Saker, 25.
Palestinian witnesses said that when Palestinian police came to Block 8 of the crowded shantytown to make arrests, a gun fight erupted. There were no reports of injuries.
Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been quick to distance themselves from the attack, and the Popular Resistance Committees issued a statement saying it was not involved. All groups stressed their battle was against Israel alone, and they had no interest in targeting Americans.
The PRC was formed at the end of 2000, three months after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. It consists of dozens of armed men, mostly Fatah breakaways or former members of the security forces. Other factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are also represented. Israeli officials said the group has ties to Lebanese Hizbullah guerrillas.
The Palestinian group has blown up three Israeli tanks with massive remote-controlled bombs in the past three years _ the same technique used in Wednesday's attack which killed three American security guards and wounded a fourth. The bombing was likely to increase US pressure on the Palestinian leadership to move against militants.
US President George W. Bush held the Palestinian Authority partially responsible, saying Wednesday that "Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms."
The PRESS WILL NOT SHOW YOU THIS>>>>>WHY..??
This video should be sent to everyone you know.
An interesting 10 min video about terrorism:
Allow to load fully in the cache, then replay for continuity.
If there was ever a Clitoon type response thie is it.
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