Israeli strike kills militants
2004-07-29 21:36
Gaza City - The leader of a Palestinian militant faction and his deputy were killed on Thursday in an Israeli missile strike on their vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said.
Amer Abu Sitteh, 32, head of the Aburish group, and his number two, Zaki Abu Zarqa, were killed instantly in the air raid in Rafah, said the sources.
The Aburish faction is a small armed group which mainly consists of dissidents from the mainstream Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and has its stronghold in the southern Gaza Strip.
Both men were from the Khan Yunis area, just north of Rafah.
Israel had sought Abu Sitteh for the killing of a Jewish settler since 1992 and had made several requests to the Palestinian Authority for his arrest, the sources added.
An Israeli military source confirmed both men had been the target of "an air raid", adding that Abu Sitteh had been responsible for "dozens" of anti-Israeli attacks in the past decade.
Israel has assassinated a number of leading Palestinian militants in recent months, including the founder of the Islamist Hamas movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor as leader, Abdelaziz Rantissi.