JERUSALEM – At least 12 suspected terrorists fled their hiding places in Yasser Arafat’s headquarters because of fear that Israel is about to raid the West Bank compound and arrest them, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
Some of the fugitives charged that Arafat betrayed them – and personally ordered them out of the compound they had used as a sanctuary for months.
The suspects are members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group linked to Arafat’s Fatah faction that has carried out many suicide bombings.
According to a senior Fatah official, Hussein al-Sheikh, 12 men left the compound over the past few days because of rumors of an impending Israeli raid.
“They thought it’s better to leave to avoid any harm or tightening the siege on President Arafat,” al-Sheikh said.
He said Arafat was unaware the men were leaving.
But some of the militants who fled said Arafat evicted them after one of his security chiefs received a warning from Israeli officials, who threatened to pull the suspects out of “Arafat’s desk drawer” if they had to.
They said 21 militants altogether had been ousted.
Arafat refused to discuss what had happened at the besieged compound but said only one fugitive remained inside.
“There is nobody, but one who was injured, since the tremendous attack on us, and he’s paralyzed,” he said.
Militant leaders have been on the defensive since Israel revived its targeted killing of terrorist leaders, with the assassination of two Hamas chieftains in the past month.
Meanwhile, Israeli security authorities yesterday warned journalists, particularly Americans, to be careful when covering events in the West Bank because of the danger of being kidnapped.
Sources said the reason for the warning was intelligence data that indicated militant groups are considering the abduction of American citizens among “reprisal operations” in response to President Bush’s support for Israeli bargaining positions.
With Post Wire Services