Hamas says it foiled Fatah plot to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh

[bemildred]

A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as he prayed and said the would-be suicide bomber had been arrested and had confessed.

Tension between Islamist Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in the West Bank.

"There was a plan by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt to assassinate Haniyeh as he prayed in the mosque. He was arrested and confessed," Saeed Seyam, who oversees Hamas government security forces in Gaza and is a former interior minister in the Hamas government, told reporters. Haniyeh was prime minister of the Hamas-led government which Abbas sacked after the Gaza takeover.

A Fatah spokesman dismissed Sayam's allegations. "We deny any involvement or considering any bomb plot in mosques against any Palestinian figure, whether it be Haniyeh or anybody else," Fahmi al-Zareer said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/946079.html

[bemildred]

1. Hamas reveals details over Haneya's assassination attempt

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Said Siam, Hamas' former interior minister, said the assassination was designated to be a suicide bombing targeting Haneya when he leaves a mosque in one of Friday prayers.

A week ago, Hamas announced that its police forces arrested a suspect who carried a bag of explosives ready to go off at a stadium where Hamas was holding a rally which was also attended by Haneya.

At a news conference on Saturday, Siam said that the investigations showed that the would-be suicide bomber received orders from Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Fatah movement based the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The suspect "filmed himself while reading his testaments and received a call from Tayeb Abdel Rahim, the Palestinian Presidency Secretary-General, who promised him to protect and support his family and rebuild his house of (Hamas) demolished it," Siam said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/19/content_7452310.htm

[oberliner]

2. Do you buy it?

The source cited here is the state-run Chinese news agency.

[bemildred]

3. No. But, the source means nothing.

The "evidence" is not public, as far as I can tell at present, and the biases of the source are clear. It's like the Syrian nuke bombing, bullshit until proven otherwise, and the words of various talking heads are not facts, are not evidence.

Xinhua is like al Jazeera, they print things you won't see in the Western press, hence useful, but they have their own axes to grind.

Still, I consider such things as this are worth watching.

[oberliner]

4. Really?

I have tended to avoid posting anything from Xinhua as I would imagine that it would be less like Al-Jazeera and more like the state-run media in Egypt, for example.

But I confess to not knowing too much about it.

[bemildred]

5. They lie about things that matter to them.

Otherwise not. They don't lie for the fun of it. Like most news sources, actually.