April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the new leader of the Palestinian Islamic Group Hamas, was killed during an attack on a car in which he was traveling in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement.

The Israeli forces targeted Rantissi, whom they said is responsible for attacks on Israelis. Rantissi, a pediatrician by training who helped found Hamas in 1988, succeeded Sheikh Ahmed Yassin after Israel assassinated the 67-year-old, wheelchair- bound Yassin in March.

Cable News Network earlier reported Rantisi's death. The Israeli government told Rantisi that he might be marked for assassination, CNN said, citing unidentified local authorities. One of Rantisi's sons and a bodyguard were also killed, the report said. Some Hamas followers have vowed revenge for Rantisi's death, CNN said.

The U.S. White House declined to comment immediately on the CNN report. Rantisi's death comes hours after a suicide attack at the Erez border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel injured three Israelis.

U.S. President George W. Bush said this week he supports Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to retain some West Bank settlements while withdrawing all settlers from the Gaza Strip in an accord that would leads to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Sharon's plan differs from a U.S.-sponsored ``road map'' that calls for Israel to withdraw from land occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

This doesn't sound like a real great job opportunity at the moment.....

Deeply saddened by the loss of a man with such obviously deep humanitarian instincts.

Jacques

Was there a bag limit problem? I guess a bodyguard was fair game but was the son still in spots or was he active?

Charleton

WMD & Al Queda in Jordan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3635381.stm

Plot thwarted.

B

I guess they learned something.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html?hp

It seems like being a hama's leader is very bad for your health.

Kudo's to Israel their making the point loud and painfully clear.

Could you copy that story? I'm not about to give that piece of trash editorial cesspool my information.

I understand, D.

Hamas Appoints New Leader After Killing


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 18, 2004

Filed at 7:39 a.m. ET

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Hamas secretly appointed a new Gaza Strip chief early Sunday, but refused to reveal his identity after Israel assassinated two Hamas leaders in less than a month.

Israel killed Abdel Aziz Rantisi in a missile strike on his car on Saturday, part of its declared campaign to wipe out the Islamic militant group's leadership before Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Two of Rantisi's bodyguards were also killed in the attack.

Palestinians demonstrated Sunday throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank calling for attacks to retaliate for the assassination. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in a riot against the killing, hospital officials said.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians filled the streets of Gaza City on Sunday in Rantisi's funeral procession. Hamas supporters chanting ``God is great'' and ``revenge, revenge,'' threw flowers at the three men's stretchers as they carried them from the hospital.

About 200 armed Hamas militants lined both sides of the road and gave the bodies a military salute as they approached a large blue and green mourning tent set up outside Rantisi's house. Armed men fired into the air and many in the gathered crowd raised their fists in anger.

``Hamas will move ahead and will continue the resistance march,'' said local Hamas leader Ahmad Sahar, a friend of Rantisi's.

Hamas posted a statement on its Web site pledging ``100 unique retaliations'' that will shake Israel. It said it had declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until revenge was complete.

``Yesterday they said that they killed Rantisi to weaken Hamas. They are dreaming. Every time a martyr falls, Hamas is strengthened,'' Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, told more than 70,000 mourners gathered at the city's largest mosque for the funeral. ``Hamas might have a crisis at hand after losing its leaders, but it will not be defeated.''

Rantisi was killed less than a month after Israel assassinated Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The group's Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal reportedly instructed the organization to keep the name of its new Gaza leader secret.

Israel has targeted Hamas and its leaders in advance of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip and a few West Bank settlements.

``This policy of making an effort on the one hand to advance a political process and on the other hand to hit the terror organizations and their leaders will continue,'' Sharon said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.

Sharon returned from Washington Friday with strong U.S. backing for his plan, as well as unprecedented U.S. support for Israel to hold on to parts of the West Bank under a final peace deal.

Sharon has called for a May 2 referendum on his plan in his hard-line Likud Party, and polls show the proposal garnering a slim majority of the party's 200,000 voters.

Two key Israeli Cabinet ministers, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Limor Livnat, decided Sunday to back the plan, giving Sharon a Cabinet majority and the support of influential Likud members.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert denied there was a connection between the referendum and Rantisi's assassination. But the killing underscored Israel's commitment to continue fighting terrorism and hunting down militant leaders even after a pullout, he said.

Israeli Cabinet minister Gideon Ezra said Mashaal -- the overall Hamas leader who Israel tried unsuccessfully to kill in the past -- was also marked for death.

``The fate of Khaled Mashaal is the fate of Rantisi. The minute we have the operational opportunity we will do this,'' Ezra said.

The Bush administration declined to criticize Rantisi's killing, saying instead that Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks and urging Palestinians to use restraint in responding.

``The United States strongly urges Israel to consider carefully the consequences of its actions,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said

rab officials and Muslim leaders called the assassination ``state terrorism'' that proved Israel was intent on sabotaging peace hopes and suggested American support for such killings, an accusation Israel and the United States denied. Earlier in the week, a taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden vowed revenge against America for the Israeli killing of Yassin

Israeli security forces went on high alert after Rantisi was killed, fearing reprisal bombings. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the killing as a ``brutal assassination.''

Black smoke from burning tires billowed over Gaza and fresh graffiti promising fierce revenge decorated the walls of the crowded coastal strip. Streets remained empty and stores shuttered as Gazans marked the first of a three-day mourning period for Rantisi. Children stayed home from school.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority instructed schools to devote the first half-hour of lessons to Quran readings in a sign of mourning. Flags were flown at half staff at Arafat's Ramallah headquarters.

In the city of Nablus, crowds hung up effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush, shot them and then burned them as they chanted ``revenge, revenge.''

Rantisi's car was hit by two missiles Saturday evening about a block from his house in the Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.

Rantisi ran about 15 meters (yards) from the car, collapsed and lost consciousness, Ghazal said. The Hamas leader, his body pocked with bloody wounds and blood streaming from his head and neck, was rushed to the hospital and into emergency surgery. He died five minutes after arriving.

Israeli officials accused Rantisi of planning a large attack on Israel to solidify his leadership of Hamas and to retaliate for Yassin's killing. Hamas is responsible for most of the 112 suicide bombings that have killed 465 people on the Israeli side during 3 1/2 years of violence.

Israel has killed more than 150 militants in targeted raids since fighting broke out in September 2000, according to Palestinian medical officials, though that total includes militants killed resisting arrest.

Also Sunday, the Israeli army killed a Palestinian armed with a rifle who tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in Gaza. Hospital officials identified the man as Nael Mohammad Omar, a 22-year-old Islamic Jihad member.

Well you don't have to be accurate, make sure you select the minimum income and they won't bother soliciting or spamming you.

I don't know -- my theory is that once your leader is about 150th down on the pecking order, the quality of leadership and effectiveness of the organization diminishes. To me, this assassination gives true meaning to the first. What would the point have been if they just sat back and let someone else fill those shoes?

Anybody know where they got the WMD? Does Al Queda have clandestine WMD factories?

B

Us and Them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me, and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
General sat, as the lines on the map
moved from side to side
Black and Blue
And who knows which is which and who is who
Up and Down
And in the end it's only round and round and round
Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
the poster bearer cried
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There's room for you inside
Down and Out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about
With, without
And who'll deny that's what the fightings all about
Out of the way, it's a busy day
And I've got things on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died

--Pink Floyd

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Faces of death, not for the tender hearted:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/76E6920D-56DD-448C-B7E3-B90E7D8FF032.htm

__________________
2011 Prius

Ah, Al Jazeera. .... Welll that's a step up from Al Aribiya.