Troops kill 5 Palestinians

2006-05-14 18:57

Nablus - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian intelligence officer and four other men on Sunday during separate raids in the West Bank town of Jenin and a nearby village, Palestinian security officials said.

They said soldiers encircled a building next to Palestinian intelligence headquarters in Jenin, gunshots were heard, and the bloodstained body of Ali Jabarin, a former member of the violent al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, was seen lying in the street immediately after the shooting.

The officials had no further details of the attack.

In the village of Qabatiyeh, troops killed Said Hanisheh, 24 - an Aqsa militant wanted by Israeli security forces, and his brother Mujahed, 25, who was not known to be a militant, Palestinian officials said, adding that the shootings took place after soldiers surrounded a house.

Later, armoured bulldozers were brought in to demolish a house where militants were still believed to be hiding, witnesses said.

Israeli troops shot and killed another Palestinian, Jihad Kumayl, 19, who was throwing rocks at the troops operating in the area, witnesses and doctors said.

Later, an Israeli armoured bulldozer removed from a house the body of a fourth Palestinian killed in Qabatiyeh and dumped it in the street, witnesses said.

Then the bulldozer extracted another Palestinian, who was seriously wounded, they said.

The army said that in both places troops seeking to carry out arrests were fired upon and returned fire.

The military spokesperson's office did not give further details.

- AP