Islamic Jihad

The Sun recently ran an article titled "Israel bombs Islamic Jihad base, killing 5. " I must object to your method of reporting. The article gives the impression that Israel started bombing the base with no reason. It is only in paragraphs two and three that you state that Islamic Jihad launched rockets into Israel last week. It appears that you are intentionally giving the wrong impression to someone who only reads the headline. Why not state that Jihad launched rockets and Israel retaliated?

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s recent column ("The Obama doctrine: Passivity where leadership is needed," Oct. 14) continues to present a flawed ideological position on the Middle East when a heterodox view is in order. We entered the Middle East and North Africa for only one reason: oil. We lost the oil reserves by 1980. Over the last 40 years every administration and Congress has careened from one costly political and military debacle to another in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops swooped down on a West Bank hide-out early yesterday and shot to death a senior commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and one of his top aides, according to military spokesmen and Palestinian officials. The killing of Luai Saadi, a fugitive blamed by Israeli authorities for orchestrating attacks that killed 12 Israelis this year, drew threats of vengeance from Islamic Jihad. As Israel ushered in the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah, the Israeli military stepped up its state of readiness and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned that any strike by Islamic Jihad would be met with a harsh response.

The Sun recently ran an article titled "Israel bombs Islamic Jihad base, killing 5. " I must object to your method of reporting. The article gives the impression that Israel started bombing the base with no reason. It is only in paragraphs two and three that you state that Islamic Jihad launched rockets into Israel last week. It appears that you are intentionally giving the wrong impression to someone who only reads the headline. Why not state that Jihad launched rockets and Israel retaliated?

JERUSALEM -- Israeli forces killed at least four Islamic militants in several airstrikes yesterday, including a high-ranking commander of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The stepped-up military operations in Gaza followed a week of high-level diplomacy in Jerusalem intended to restart the stalled peace process. One airstrike killed Omar Khatib, a top Islamic Jihad commander, his deputy and another fighter from the group as they were driving in central Gaza, Israeli military and Islamic Jihad officials said.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- An Egyptian terrorist group financed by a fugitive Saudi Arabian Islamic fundamentalist is now the leading suspect in the twin bombings that killed 257 people at the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials.According to U.S. officials who asked not to be identified, a Kenyan security guard at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi picked an operative from the terrorist network of Saudi multimillionaire Osama bin Laden from photographs shown to him by FBI investigators in Nairobi.

JERUSALEM -- A suicide bomber blew himself up at a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv yesterday, injuring at least 16 people, Israeli police said. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the explosion, which took place near a former main bus station hit previously by Palestinian bombers. Authorities said the bomber set off explosives inside a restaurant in a working-class neighborhood. Police said the restaurant did not have a security guard posted at the door, as many Israeli business establishments do. Witnesses said the man carried a large black duffel and pretended to sell razors.

NETANYA, Israel -- A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a shopping mall yesterday, killing at least five people and wounding more than 40. The bombing, which occurred shortly before noon as shoppers lined up at the entrance for security checks, was the second such attack since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip over the summer raised hopes for diplomatic progress. It added uncertainty as the Palestinians and Israelis head into separate election seasons. Officials said the bomber detonated the explosives after a security guard and police became suspicious and pulled him aside for questioning.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel carried out more airstrikes yesterday against Palestinian rocket squads based in the Gaza Strip, leaving at least six militants dead, a day after killing Islamic Jihad's military chief. Israeli air operations have killed at least 11 militants since Monday evening. Most belonged to Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of cross-border rocket attacks into southern Israel in recent months. The group vowed to avenge the death Monday night of Majid al-Harazin, the head of Islamic Jihad's military arm in the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops fatally shot a commander of the militant group Islamic Jihad yesterday during a gunbattle in the West Bank, and three farm workers in a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip were later killed by a Palestinian rocket attack. The incidents and two other violent deaths yesterday tested a cease-fire announced by the main Palestinian factions in March, but there was no immediate sign that the agreement was in danger. Still, the outbreak marred the period of relative calm and raised fears of reprisals from both sides.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A well-coordinated attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital yesterday morning left 16 people dead but was ultimately thwarted by security barriers and Yemeni soldiers, six of whom died in the car-bomb explosion and ensuing gunbattle. No American personnel were injured in the failed attempt by the attackers to breach the well-guarded compound's gates and to get near the building that houses U.S. officials. An obscure group called Islamic Jihad, unrelated to the Palestinian organization, claimed responsibility for the attack.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian policemen dispatched last week to an unruly West Bank district clashed yesterday with Islamic militants there, wounding two of them during a crackdown that could influence peace talks with Israel. It was the first such confrontation since 480 police reinforcements marched into the city of Jenin before thousands of cheering residents Saturday to launch "Operation Smile and Hope." Jenin and outlying towns and villages, protected until then by a police force of 150, have been troubled by criminal gangs.

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian gunman killed two security guards yesterday at an Israeli industrial park that employs Palestinian workers and whose name means "buds of peace." Two militant groups claimed joint responsibility for the attack along Israel's border with the West Bank. They said the gunman, who was slightly wounded, had reached the complex from the Palestinian territory. Fatal attacks inside Israel have become rare. This one would be only the second since 2006 to originate from the West Bank, which has been largely separated from Israel in recent years by a ribbon of walls and fences.

JERUSALEM -- A senior Israeli official and leaders of Gaza militant groups have held talks with Egyptian officials in recent days, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel denied yesterday that Israel was engaged in talks to broker a truce, despite several days of relative quiet near the Gaza border. Olmert said, however, that if the militant groups halted their rocket fire and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, "Israel will have no reason to fight the terrorists there." Representatives of the groups in Gaza said they were trying to create a calm atmosphere to give Egypt a chance to broker a more comprehensive deal between the warring sides.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel carried out more airstrikes yesterday against Palestinian rocket squads based in the Gaza Strip, leaving at least six militants dead, a day after killing Islamic Jihad's military chief. Israeli air operations have killed at least 11 militants since Monday evening. Most belonged to Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of cross-border rocket attacks into southern Israel in recent months. The group vowed to avenge the death Monday night of Majid al-Harazin, the head of Islamic Jihad's military arm in the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli forces killed at least four Islamic militants in several airstrikes yesterday, including a high-ranking commander of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The stepped-up military operations in Gaza followed a week of high-level diplomacy in Jerusalem intended to restart the stalled peace process. One airstrike killed Omar Khatib, a top Islamic Jihad commander, his deputy and another fighter from the group as they were driving in central Gaza, Israeli military and Islamic Jihad officials said.

JERUSALEM -- A fiery explosion yesterday in the middle of a busy street killed the top commander of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian militant group blamed Israel, which denied any involvement. Adding to tensions, gunmen in the West Bank killed a Jewish settler and seriously wounded a second Israeli. Such roadside attacks were common at the height of the Palestinian uprising but had become less common over the past year. The explosion came as Islamic Jihad commander Khaled Dahdouh was driving through the center of Gaza City.

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces swept into the West Bank city of Tulkarem yesterday, killing a Palestinian police officer in a gunfight and arresting five suspected members of Islamic Jihad after the militant group killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing Tuesday, the army and Palestinians said. Pressing ahead with preparations for a withdrawal next month from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signed an order closing Jewish settlements there to nonresidents in an effort to block entry by protesters who have vowed to resist the pullout.

JERUSALEM -- At least four Palestinian gunmen using an armored vehicle and grenade launchers broke through Israel's border fence from Gaza yesterday and fought a gunbattle with Israeli soldiers, while Israeli troops entered Gaza near the southern town of Rafah to search for weapons and tunnels used to smuggle arms and explosives from Egypt. One of the Palestinian gunmen was shot dead after the armored vehicle, labeled "TV," crashed through the border fence at the old Kissufim crossing, near Deir el Balah, according to the Israeli army.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinian militants during a raid yesterday in the West Bank town of Jenin and also entered Nablus for the second time this week. In Jenin, undercover Israeli forces moved to arrest two Islamic Jihad members allegedly involved in a foiled suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week, Israeli officials said. The troops shot back after being fired upon, killing the suspects and a man with them, officials said. The dead were identified as Ashraf Saadi, 29, suspected of involvement in numerous shootings and bombings, and Mohammed Abu Naasah, 34, an Islamic Jihad commander in the Jenin refugee camp.