Terror groups threaten retaliation for Arkan killing

Terror groups were threatening revenge against Israel on Thursday morning for the targeted killing of Rafah area Popular Resistance Committees commander Mahmoud Arkan on Wednesday night.

Overnight Wednesday, Israeli artillery fired on launch pads in northern Gaza that had been used earlier in the night to shoot a mortar at Israel. No one was wounded in the attack.

Israel's target on Wednesday night, Arkan, 29, was behind most of the attacks in the Rafah region in the past months.

Two days after the green light for targeted assassinations was given, an IAF aircraft fired a missile into a moving vehicle in the Gaza Strip killing the prominent terrorist.

At least 10 bystanders, including children, were reportedly injured in the strike, shortly after nightfall, which took place in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

Witnesses said Arkan had been traveling with two men in a white Subaru. Hospital sources in Gaza told reporters that the two were in critical condition. Their identities were not given.

The strike was the first in over five weeks and came after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered a resumption of targeted interceptions following the suicide bombing in Netanya Monday by the Islamic Jihad which killed five people.

Terrorists immediately went underground as the IDF and Shin Bet intensified their crackdown on the Islamic Jihad, but security forces also had their sights on other terrorist groups.

Arkan played a main role in a number of attacks in the Rafah area, including rocket propelled grenade strikes against armored IDF forces. In June 2005, Arkan was involved in an attack on a construction team near the Girit outpost that killed an IDF warrant officer and wounded two soldiers.

Arkan was a former member of the Palestinian Naval Police but later became a commander in the PRC and worked closely with the Islamic Jihad's Abu Rish faction and other non-affiliate groups to plan and carry out attacks, military sources said.

During the implementation of the disengagement plan, Arkan continued with these activities in coordination with the Islamic Jihad, and led shooting, grenade and explosive device attacks against IDF forces along the Philidelphi route and Suffa crossing areas.

After IDF forces completed their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and up until recently, Arkan had been involved in planning and carrying out shooting attacks against IDF forces patrolling along the security fence surrounding the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the army said, he was also engaged in smuggling weaponry on a large scale. Arkan was still continuously planning additional attacks.

According to the army, information about Arkan had been transferred to Palestinian Authority security officials who did nothing to prevent the continuation of these attacks.

Mohammed Abdel-Al, spokesman for the group, pledged to hit back. "We are ready to retaliate, and the retaliation will be tough and painful," he said.

The PRC is made up of renegades from other terrorist groups and has rejected the cease-fire negotiated by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas last February.

Abdel-Al said that in principle, the PRC is committed to the truce but reserves the right to retaliate to Israeli attacks.

Shin Bet sources said the PRC is really a proxy of Hamas and may have been behind a number of Kassam rocket and mortar attacks on Israel. They have "hundreds" of members, the sources said.

"The PRC are closest to the ideology of global jihad because they don't have a political agenda other than the destruction of the West," a security source said.

The PRC was also responsible for the October 2003 bombing of a US diplomatic convoy that killed three Americans.

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC)
http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/8_04/pto.htm

1. The PRC is a terrorist organization active in the Gaza Strip. The organization was founded in September 2000, at the beginning of the current violent confrontation, by former Fatah and Palestinian Security apparatus members. Its ranks also include ex-Hamas terrorists , some of whom were wanted by Israel and who joined the Palestinian Preventive Security apparatus, and operatives who belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian .

2. The organization was founded by a Rafah resident, Jamal Abu Samhadana who formerly belonged to Fatah/Tanzim. He split with Fatah and founded the PRC and is its leader. Since its inception it has been attacking Israel, and thanks to the funding it has received has grown from modest beginnings into an organization responsible for the murders of at least 10 Israelis. Abu Samhadana was wounded during the violent confrontation while attempting to assemble an explosive device.

3. The PRC (and its operational-terrorist wing, the Salah al-Din Brigades) is responsible for a large number of attacks against Israelis in the Gaza Strip, both civilians and soldiers. Some of its more prominent attacks include the following:
Large explosive charges meant for Israeli tanks which killed three Israeli soldiers on February 14, 2002; three more on March 14, 2002; and one on September 5, 2002.

Attacks on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip : a side charge was detonated as a bus full of children passed near Kfar Darom on November 20, 2000, killing two; shots were fired at a bus carrying airport workers near the Rafah terminal on October 8, 2000, wounding 8 Israeli civilians; shots were fired at a car on the road from Kerem Shalom to the Rafah terminal, killing the woman driver. Akram Salameh ‘Atia Said , a member of the PRC who was sentenced to 24 years in prison (See below), admitted during interrogation to having planned to perpetrate a suicide bombing attack at Kfar Darom.

Mortar attacks on Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip, including civilian villages , some within a very short period of time: three on the same day (April 28, 2001) against moshav Netzer Hazani (five young people wounded, one of them seriously); one (April 29, 2001) against the village of Kfar Darom ; and one (May 7, 2001) against the village of Atzmona.

4. In the past the organization attempted to set up operations in the West Bank as well. In January 2002, Akram Salameh ‘Atia Said was sent by Jamal Abu Samhadana from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to shoot at Israeli civilians and soldiers. He infiltrated through the fence at Kissufim, went to Lod and from there to Ramallah. He was arrested on February 25, 2002, convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

5. The PRC was apparently the organization behind the attack on the American convoy at Beit Hanoun in the northern part of the Gaza Strip (October 15, 2003). Two side charges were detonated, blowing up a vehicle and killing three security personnel who were accompanying the American cultural attaché. So far the Palestinian Authority has avoided a serious investigation of the incident.
6. PRC terrorists have various weapons at their disposal: small arms, explosives (commercial and homemade), mines, hand grenades and anti-tank rockets and mortars. The PRC has recently (July 2004) begun launching homemade Nasser 3 rockets at Israeli villages close to the Gaza Strip. The weapons are obtained by smuggling (usually through tunnels between Rafah and Egypt). In addition, they purchase from arms dealers and manufacturers or produced independently.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.