Palestinian group says responsible for killing ex-security chief

A group calling itself the Popular Resistance Committees of the Intifada (uprising) claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the assassination of retired military intelligence official General Musa Arafat.

Arafat, who was born in 1941, was the chief of Palestinian military intelligence since the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established in 1994.

Well-informed Palestinian security sources said that dozens of unknown masked militants on Wednesday predawn assassinated General Arafat after storming his home in the Gaza City and kidnapped his son.

A man recognizing himself as Abu Abeer, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees of the Intifada, told reporters and local radio stations in Gaza that his group is responsible for killing Arafat and kidnapping his 29-years-old son Manhal.

Abu Abeer, declined for going into details on why his group killed Arafat, but said that he would later brief the local media on the circumstances.

Palestinian security sources said that a around 80 masked and non-masked militants stormed General Arafat's home in the neighborhood of "Tal al-Hawa" in the southern part of Gaza City, threw hand grenades at the house and clashed with his personal bodyguards.

The sources added that the militants shot and killed General Arafat immediately and then abducted his son Manhal who is considered his father's right arm.

Medical sources at al-Quds Hospital that run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in the city confirmed that General Arafat arrived dead at the hospital.

Witnesses and neighbors living in the area said that they heard about four explosions as a result of throwing hand grenades, and then they heard intensive gunfire, after the militants and General Arafat's bodyguards traded fire.

The Palestinian security forces had immediately opened an investigation on the circumstances of the assault.

General Arafat is a nephew to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who died on Nov. 11 last year in a hospital in France after he suffered a mysterious disease.

He was born in Jaffa in Israel before 1948 and returned to Gaza after Israel and the Palestinians signed Oslo accords in 1994, where the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established.

Late Arafat nominated General Arafat as the chief of the military intelligence and then promoted him as the chief of the Palestinian National Security Forces shortly before the Palestinian leader passed away.

Following Arafat's death, General Arafat retired while the new Palestinian leadership decided to implement the law and make reforms into the Palestinian security and civil institutions, but he was named as a military advisor to current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Source: Xinhua