The leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip blew himself up during a shootout Saturday with security forces that killed 22 people and posed one of the biggest challenges to Hamas since the militant group seized power in Gaza two years ago.The fighting erupted Friday when Hamas security men surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egypt border where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up. The head of the radical Islamic group, Abdel-Latif Moussa, was killed when fighting resumed after dawn Saturday, Ihab Ghussein, a Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press. He said Moussa detonated an explosives vest he was wearing during the fighting.
"The so-called Moussa has committed suicide ... killing a mediator who had been sent to him to persuade him and his followers to hand themselves over to the government," Ghussein said. He said the fighting ended later in the morning.
Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said a total of 22 people, including six Hamas police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed in the violence that also wounded 150. The group's Web site vowed vengeance, meanwhile, saying "we swear to God to avenge the martyrs' blood and we will
Hamas also confirmed the death in the fighting of one of its high level commanders, Abu-Jibril Shimali, whom Israel said orchestrated the capture three years ago of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier who is still being held by Hamas.
| BBC backgrounder on Jund Ansar Allah here. |