'Mercenaries' attacked tent
2004-11-15 18:55
Dubai - Former Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan said on
Monday that a "gang of mercenaries" known to the Palestinian police
were behind the shooting that resulted in two deaths in a mourning
tent for Yasser Arafat in Gaza.
Shooting broke out on Sunday as the new PLO leader Mahmud Abbas and Dahlan, visited the tent at the late leader Arafat's Gaza City
headquarters.
Two members of the Palestinian security forces were
killed.
But Dahlan told Al-Arabiya television that there was no truth in
reports that a Palestinian group opposed to Abbas was responsible.
"It is not true. It was an armed band of mercenaries who had
benefited from the chaos of recent years."
He added that there was no political dimension to the shooting
and the gunmen did not belong to any of the resistance groups who
had opposed the Israeli occupation in recent years.
Dahlan said all the security services knew the identity of the
gunmen and "the affair needs no more irrefutable proof than the
pictures" carried by the television stations broadcasting from the
tent.
- AFP