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| Middle East |
| Shin Bet nabs killer of baby Shalhevet Pas |
| 2002-12-10 |
| The Shin Bet security service has apprehended a Tanzim operative from Hebron, suspected of shooting and killing ten-month-old Shalhevet Pas in March 2001. Joe Anonymous posted a ref to this yesterday, and Steve had some more detail. I think this is the Ha'aretz article Steve referred to... The suspect, Mahmoud Amrou, has confessed that on March 26, 2001, he followed orders from a Fatah commander, Marwan Zaloum (who was later killed by the Israel Defense Forces) and took up a position with a rifle in the Abu Sneina neighborhood, overlooking the Avraham Avinu Jewish settler enclave in Hebron. Amrou fired several shots at the two, killing the girl and wounding her father in the leg. Shin Bet investigators believe that Amrou was responsible for other terror strikes, including the placement of a mine south of Hebron, and several shooting attacks at settler sites and IDF bases in Hebron. A short time after the murder, the Palestinian Authority arrested Amrou for several hours, but subsequently released him. "What're you taking me in for?" "Shootin' a baby." "She was just a Jew kid!" "Oh. Well, in that case, beat it. Here's yer gun back." Mahmoud Amrou, 28, is from Hebron's Wadi Hariyah neighborhood. He belonged to what Israel Defense Forces officers call the Wadi Hariyah-Abu Sneina gang, an armed group led by Zaloum which carried out a number of gunfire attacks against the Beit Hadassah and Avraham Avinu settler neighborhoods during the first year of the intifada. Almost all members of the gang have been killed or detained by the IDF and Shin Bet. This group, together with what the IDF called the "Halhul gang" (most of whose members have also been killed or arrested), constituted the main Tanzim network in Hebron in the period preceding Operation Defensive Shield. Both groups were directed by Hebron Tanzim leader Diab Sharbati, and got logistical help from Palestinian Authority security forces in the city. These are kind of the Paleocrips and Paleobloods... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |