MIDDLE EAST: Former Palestinian security chief Moussa Arafat was assassinated before dawn yesterday by 100 masked gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers who carried out a paramilitary assault on his Gaza villa.
Gen Arafat's guards held off the attackers for an hour before they burst into the house, dragged him into the street, shot him, and abducted his son, Manal Arafat. Police based nearby did not intervene.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said, "This assassination . . . will not undermine our efforts to impose law and public order."
The killing, which came a week ahead of the Israeli army's withdrawal from Gaza, coincided with a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and a visit from French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy. Palestinian officials said the attack targeted both the authority and Fatah.
Moussa Arafat, a cousin of late president Yasser Arafat, was the most senior figure killed in factional violence since the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. On his return to Gaza, he established the military intelligence apparatus used to carry out a harsh crackdown on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in 1996.
Although he had a reputation for brutality and corruption, president Arafat made him overall security chief during 2004. But following protests and clashes between police and activists from the ruling Fatah movement, the appointment was cancelled. The general remained head of military intelligence until April when he was dismissed and named as an adviser to Mr Abbas.
Gen Arafat, a founder of Fatah and member of its Revolutionary Council, had survived two previous attempts on his life.
Muhammad Abu Al, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella organisation grouping Fatah and Hamas dissidents, claimed responsibility for the "liquidation" of Gen Arafat, and said his son was under interrogation. The group, which frequently violates truces with Israel, had repeatedly clashed with Gen Arafat's men.
Abu Al said Gen Arafat had been killed because he was a "collaborator" with Israel.
He also had enemies within the young guard of mainstream Fatah activists who resent domination by former exiles.
The assassination of such a high-profile figure could either herald a full-scale power struggle or precipitate the collapse of law and order.
Israel aims to begin the final stage of its military pull-out from the Gaza Strip next Monday to complete it as scheduled on September 15th. - (Reuters)
