Rantisi death pool anyone?
Posted on 03/21/2004 9:30:51 PM PST by Cedar
Israeli Airstrike Kills Hamas Founder
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Hamas militant group that targeted Israelis in suicide bombings, was killed by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he left a mosque at daybreak Monday, witnesses said.
AP Photo
AP Photo Slideshow: Mideast Conflict
Hamas confirmed the death in an announcement broadcast over mosque loudspeakers and vowed revenge against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).
Witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at the wheelchair-bound Yassin and two bodyguards as they left the mosque, killing them instantly.
A total of four people were killed and 12 were wounded in the attack, witnesses said.
Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards.
"Their bodies were shattered," he said.
Yassin was by far the most senior Palestinian militant killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Since September 2000, 474 people — the majority of them Israelis — have been killed in 112 Palestinian suicide bombings.
Sharon's government has gone after militant leaders using Israeli helicopter gunships in a controversial policy that has resulted in a number of civilian casualties in addition to the deaths of senior figures in Hamas and other groups.
Yassin was viewed as an inspirational figure by his followers in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and West Bank. His death could spur violent protests not only in the Palestinian areas but in the wider Arab and Islamic world, where he was well-regarded as a symbol of the Palestinian battle for independence.
Thousands of angry Palestinians gathered minutes after the attack, calling for revenge against Israel.
In announcing Yassin's death, Hamas said, "(Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head."
Ambulances and fire trucks raced to the scene with sirens wailing, and rescue workers gathered up the shattered bodies.
Outside the morgue at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin, had tears in his eyes as he confirmed Yassin's death and pledged revenge.
"This is the moment Sheik Yassin dreamed about," Haniyeh said. "Sheik Yassin lived and died and offered his life to Palestine. Sheik Yassin was a hero and a fighter and the leader of a nation, and (he) is in heaven now."
Yassin founded Hamas at the start of the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, in 1987. It is an offshoot of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which is based in Egypt.
The Bush administration, as well as Israel, lists Hamas as a terrorist group.
Yassin was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994.
Yassin lived in a modest house in the rundown Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City. Israel, which blamed him for inspiring Hamas bombers and attackers who killed hundreds of Israelis, tried unsuccessfully to kill him in a September missile strike that injured 16 people.
Past Israeli governments were reluctant to target Yassin, fearing a firestorm of revenge attacks.
Rantisi death pool anyone?
Gee, this means that you inbred savages have just decided you don't like the Jews? You know, the same people who in the same place made plants grow, industries expand and universities burgeon where all you have accomplished, you Arabs, is to sit around smoking, buggering animals and little boys, collecting welfare from the Saudis (not from anything the Saudis accomplished, of course) and sending your kids to blow themselves up.
I guess this really means no more Mr Nice Guy from the Arabs -- a race that can point with pride to the vast majority of the world's terrorism, and to absolutely no other accomplishment in any practical, cultural or scientific field. We'll surely mourn the absence of your already absent contributions -- not.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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