Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin killed

[pushpills]

Airstrike kills Hamas founder

BY IBRAHIM BARZAK

Associated Press


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Hamas extremist group that has targeted Israelis in suicide bombings, was killed by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he left a mosque at daybreak today, witnesses said.

Hamas confirmed the death in an announcement broadcast over mosque loudspeakers and vowed revenge against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at Yassin, who was in a wheelchair, and two bodyguards as they left the mosque, killing them instantly. A total of four people were killed and 12 were wounded in the attack, witnesses said.

Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards. ''Their bodies were shattered,'' he said.

HIGH-RANKING

Yassin was by far the most senior Palestinian extremist killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Since September 2000, 474 people -- the majority of them Israelis -- have been killed in 112 Palestinian suicide bombings.

The Bush administration, as well as Israel, lists Hamas as a terrorist group.

Sharon's government has gone after extremist leaders using Israeli helicopter gunships in a controversial policy that has resulted in a number of civilian casualties in addition to the deaths of senior figures in Hamas and other groups.

POSSIBLE REPRISALS

Yassin was viewed as an inspirational figure by his followers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. His death could spur violent protests not only in the Palestinian areas but in the wider Arab and Islamic world.

Thousands of angry Palestinians gathered minutes after the attack, calling for revenge against Israel.

In announcing Yassin's death, Hamas said, ``Ariel Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head.''

Yassin founded Hamas at the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 1987. It is an offshoot of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which is based in Egypt. Yassin was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being freed in 1994.

Past Israeli governments were reluctant to target Yassin, fearing revenge attacks.


------------------------------------------


cliff notes:

asshole terrorist group founder blasted by israeli missiles