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Posted on 02/26/2005 10:43:23 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Saturday evening, from Damascus, for the deadly attack in Tel Aviv on Friday night.
"The period of calm was set for one month, and that month is over," said Abu Tark, a senior member of the Jihad movement. "Israel did not obey the agreement, and that's what led to our action."
The announcement confirms the security establishment's earlier suspicions, which also estimated that the Hizbulla was not involved.
Defense officials estimated that the Islamic Jihad in Damascus had operated via one of its cells in the Tulkarm area.
However, earlier on Saturday, two top Palestinian insurgents said that a senior Hizbullah operative told them that he had recruited the suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the Tel Aviv club.
The combatants, local leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, said the operative, Kais Obeid, called them after the bombing and asked them to claim responsibility for the attack.
Obeid, an Israeli Arab from the town of Taiba, was the man accused of setting the trap that delivered Elhanan Tannenbaum into the hands of Hizbullah.
The two Al Aksa leaders, one speaking from Ramallah and the other from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, said they turned down the request because they feared they would be targeted by Israeli or Palestinian security forces.
Obeid told the Al Aqsa leaders he had recruited Palestinians from the West Bank town of Tulkarm to carry out the bombing, the two leaders said on condition of anonymity.
Obeid said he paid money to the Tulkarm cell, but would not say how much. Obeid was vague about whether the bomber and his local handlers had ties to Palestinian terrorist groups, the two Al Aqsa leaders said.
A senior Palestinian security official confirmed that the bomber was recruited by Hizbullah. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomber, a Palestinian from the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm, was a member of the Brigades.
Meanwhile, PA Chariman Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that a "third party" was responsible for the attack, but stopped short of mentioning the Lebanese terror group by name.
Abbas said he is coordinating the investigation with Israel.
Al Aksa has largely honored Abbas' efforts to maintain a recent cease-fire with Israel. But elements of the group, which is comprised of many autonomous cells, are widely believed by Israeli and Palestinian officials of receiving orders and funding from Hizbullah.
In Beirut, however, a Hizbullah spokesman denied involvement.
Hizbullah said in a statement that it "categorically denies accusations that alluded to a supposed role it played in the Tel Aviv operation, considering them completely devoid of truth." The accusations are part of the "incitement which the Zionist enemy (Israel) practices against Hizbullah," it said.
Earlier Saturday, Sheik Kassem, Hizbullah's deputy secretary general, said the group had nothing to do with the late Friday attack and repeated the group's long-time assertion that it does not carry out attacks in the Palestinian territories or Israel.
"Hizbullah has no personnel or organizational presence in Palestine. It has no relashionship with operations that occur inside Palestine," Kassem told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
Hizbullah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to derail a February 8 truce declared by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Hizbullah has hundreds of West Bank gunmen on its payroll, most from Al Aqsa, a violent group with ties to Abbas' ruling Fatah Party.
The main terrorist groups - Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa - had denied involvement in the bombing, and had said they remained committed to the informal truce.
Al-Aksa leaders in Nablus and Jennin emphatically denied involvement late Friday night, telling The Jerusalem Post: "We would never stab Abu-Mazen in the back." Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi also denied that his group had any link to the attack.
"The Palestinian Authority will not stand silent in the face of this act of sabotage," PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement after holding an emergency meeting early Saturday with his security chiefs. "We will follow and track down those responsible and they will be punished accordingly."
In Tulkarm, Palestinian security forces on Saturday arrested two men in connection with the suicide bombing. Security forces said the two had ties to the combatant Islamic Jihad group.
Abbas convened an emergency meeting with his security chiefs early Saturday after the suicide attack in Tel Aviv.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas was meeting with his new interior minister, Gen. Nasser Yousef, and Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, a former security chief in the Gaza Strip.
Abbas has been seeking a formal truce commitment from Palestinian militants, but he is under growing pressure from Israel to dismantle terror groups, a step he has so far been reluctant to take.
Its about the time to cut off the power grid in Damascus and Teheran (double meaning).
Yet something tells me that it isn't going to happen...
When's the war start? I can't wait to see Syria get the thorough butt-kicking it most assuredly deserves.
Let the missiles fly!
To War!!!!
Syria is just begging for a can of whoop ass to be opened.
I disagree...
Syria seems to be eager to meet its fate...
For years now, they have been elbowing their way to the front of the "get your ass kicked" line..
Syria will have to show SIGNIFICANT "reform", or their landscape and population figures are in for some major alterations....
The idiots can't comprehend there's a "New Sheriff" in town.
Semper Fi
Same Jihadist scum, only the names are different. They all strive to emulate the violent life of Muhammad as their Koran and hadith command. Islam pounds it in over and over again that Muhammad lead the perfect life and is a worthy model for all mankind. Islam is one big ego trip for Muhammad, he concocted Allah to lend him spiritual authority.
If you notice the artcle states that they had to recruit a "new" member to carry out the bombings...are they having a hard time convincing their loyal members to commit these atrosities...
TIME TO FLATTEN SYRIA IN A MOST DEVASTATING MANNER...bttt
And once again we are given proof that those all-knowing pundits are wrong. Haven't we heard time and time again that secular Baathists cannot cooperate with islamicists such as the mullahs in Iran.
Now it seems that Islamic Jihad has its HQ in Damascus (with the good grace of Assad Jr), and cooperates with the Iran supported/dominated Hezbollah.
Excellent post.
Wonder what this will be. Lite cocktails and dinner.
We can only hope it doesn't derail the peace talks .
Also didn't they just raise the pay to a $100,000 from 20 or 25,000. So it would seem to be true. They are having a harder time finding murder bombers. Even on there muslim holidays . Iraq is sucking them dry.
This lets someone else do something useful for once, and the bonus is we see if the French are up to it. If they aren't, then unchock the B-2's.
sharon, yimah sh'mo, will do nothing.
He is committed to destroying the Jewish state. Not only destroying it, but handing it to the filthy genocidal satanic cult of death.
There is little time left.
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