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Israeli attack on hamas raises us terrorism fears

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   http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8257485.htm

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8257485.htm

Posted on Tue, Mar. 23, 2004
Israeli Attack on Hamas Leader Raises U.S. Terrorism Fears

Daily News, New York Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News


Mar. 23 - There were fresh fears for the safety of Americans at home and abroad yesterday after Israel's assassination of Hamas' Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

While Hamas made no overt threats to strike on American soil, the terror group and other Muslim radical organizations pinned the blame on Washington for taking out Sheik Ahmed Yassin in a strike carried out by Israel from a U.S.-made Apache attack helicopter.

"The killing of Yassin was endorsed by the American government, and our reaction will not be done only by the Palestinian factions but also by the whole Muslim world," Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al Qassam, said in a statement distributed on the streets of Gaza.

"There can be no life for the Americans and Zionists in the region," Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, told Al-Jazeera. "We will not rest until they are expelled from the region."

The level of anti-U.S. vitriol yesterday had law enforcement, foreign policy and counterterror officials worried about a "lone wolf" revenge attack carried out by an individual without any direct terror ties.

A Justice Department official said Hamas activity in the U.S. is limited to fund-raising and there is no proof it has terror cells here.

But former Clinton-era Defense Secretary William Cohen said Yassin's death does increase the risk for America. "We've got to be really concerned about it," he told CNN.

The Bush administration denied it signed off on Israel's military hit on Yassin.

"The United States did not have advance warning," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told Fox News. But she noted Yassin "has probably been involved in a lot of terrorist activity himself."

Unlike most European governments, including U.S. ally Britain, Washington chose not to condemn the attack.

But after some initial hesitancy to say anything critical, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan declared the White House "deeply troubled by this morning's actions in Gaza."

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters: "This event increases tensions and does not help efforts to resume progress toward peace."

By Mahmoud Habboush and Kenneth R. Bazinet

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To see more of the Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.NYDailyNews.com

© 2004, Daily News, New York. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.




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