| The Fatah Al Aksa Brigade confirmed several of its members had been involved in a foiled attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and vowed to continue in its attempts to kill him. Israeli security forces arrested three members of a five-man cell before they had a chance to attack Sharon's home in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. A group called the Popular Army Vanguards, said to be affiliated with Fatah, claimed responsibility for an unsuccessful roadside bomb attack on IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz's convoy near Beit Hagai in the Hebron Hills. Two people were killed and nine injured when Al Aqsa Brigades gunmen opened fire on a crowded market in the centre of Afula in northern Israel. |