THE head of the armed branch of Palestinian radical movement Islamic Jihad in the West Bank region of Nablus was killed early today by the Israeli army, Palestinian security sources said. Hamad Abu Sharif, chief of the Al Qods Brigades, was shot dead by troops in the old town of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, they said. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the death of an armed activist, saying: "Soldiers operating in the old town opened fire on armed men killing one of them." Two members of a Palestinian militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees, had been...