| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Palestinian forces arrest two Islamic Jihad militants |
| 2008-05-20 |
| Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have arrested two Islamic Jihad leaders, a Palestinian security official said on Monday, in a U.S.-backed law-and-order campaign in the occupied West Bank. Abdel Fatah Khuzaimiah, who was detained on Sunday, was the most senior militant taken into custody in the northern West Bank since hundreds of pro-Abbas security men deployed in the city of Jenin two weeks ago. The security official said Jihad Nawadha, another Islamic Jihad commander in the area, was arrested by Palestinian forces on Friday. Washington hopes the security campaign will show that Abbas can rein in militant groups -- Israel's main condition for Palestinian statehood. Both Khuzaimiah and Nawadha were long wanted by Israel. In a separate incident, Israeli forces operating in Jenin early on Monday arrested Amar Saleh Abu Alon, a senior Islamic Jihad militant, an Israeli military spokesman said. Israel says its raids in the West Bank, condemned by Palestinian officials as undermining Abbas's security efforts, help to prevent attacks on Israelis. In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Hamas security forces questioned Osama al-Fara, an Abbas loyalist and the governor of the southern town of Khan Younis, for four hours, sources in Abbas's Fatah movement said. |
| Posted by:Fred |