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| IJ Robbing Cradle for Fodder - 13, 14 and 16 yr old Arrested |
| 2004-02-29 |
| JPost Reg Req’d Samaria district police report the arrest Thursday of 3 youngsters age 13 to 16 from the West Bank village of Tubas. The three had in their possession makeshift firearms, and admitted their intent to perpetrate a shooting attack in Afula. They were apprehended at the Jalameh roadblock by military police, and told investigators that they had been recruited by a local Islamic Jihad official, who also dispatched them to Afula. Nice - obviously hoping for a PR coup when "defenseless teens" were killed protesting the hated wall The two also fabricated makeshift handguns and confessed to throwing rocks at passing cars. The three planned to carry out a suicide attack out of anger over Israel’s West Bank barrier, relatives told Associated Press Sunday. They are among the youngest ever arrested for planning suicide attacks. Parents of one of the boys expressed outraged that militant groups had taken to drafting young boys to carry out suicide attacks. Tarek’s parents were outraged and criticized Islamic Jihad for conscripting such young boys to their ranks. "My son doesn’t know how to write such a letter and never belonged to any groups. Someone older wrote this letter for him," said his mother, Amira Abu Mahsen. "He can’t read or write, so we know it’s not his letter" Mohammed Abu Mahsen said two men in their mid-20s looked for his young son last week and he didn’t know why. "Now I know why they were looking for my young son," Abu Mahsen said. "I will complain to the Palestinian intelligence to find whoever wanted to send my son ... I have to find out who these people are who wanted to send my son, my young son." The people you complain to probably had a hand in it Most suicide bombers have been in their 20s. The youngest was 16 years old. The army did not immediately comment. Mohammed Abu Mahsen said his 14-year-old son, Tarek, along with his friends, Jaffer Hussein, 13, and Ibrahim Suafta, 16, left a letter saying they planned to carry out a shooting attack at an Israeli military checkpoint or army base, he said. "I want to carry out an attack against (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon’s fence. This fence, we will blow it up also, the Islamic Jihad youth movement," Tarek wrote in the letter. "then we’ll attack Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv, then..." "We want you to give out candies and don’t cry for us and hold a big demonstration," he added, referring to traditional salutes given to "martyrs" who die for the Palestinian cause. The 13-year-olds claimed to be members of Islamic Jihad, while Suafta said he belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, family members said. "I like them the best. I have all their trading cards" |
| Posted by:Frank G |