World flays Yassin’s killing; 3-day mourning declared

By: Ahmed Hammadi

GAZA CITY: Assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin on Monday at the hands of Israel drew Palestinian vows of revenge, world condemnation and protests, traces of dissent in Israel's cabinet and US denials it gave a green light to the killing.

Tens of thousands of mourners took to the streets of Gaza City for the funeral procession of Ahmed Yassin. Twenty-one Palestinian police officers formed an honor guard as the flag-draped coffin was carried out of Shifa Hospital. Arab television stations replaced scheduled programs with live coverage of the funeral.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the killing and declared three days of official mourning.

“The battle is open and war between us and them is open,” said senior Hamas political leader Abdel-Aziz al Rantissi.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades called for “war, war, war on the sons of Zion. An eye for an eye. There will be a response within hours, God willing.” Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie called the missile attack on the spiritual leader of Hamas as he left dawn prayers in a wheelchair “a crazy and very dangerous act.”

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking to reporters, defended the killing of Yassin by calling him “the Palestinian bin Laden” and said his hands were covered in Israeli blood.

A dissenting voice in the Israeli cabinet, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, said Yassin had not been “a ticking bomb” and his death could lead to the loss of more Israeli lives in suicide attacks -- a warning echoed by figures on the Israeli left.

The United States strongly denied any involvement in the assassination and appealed for calm in the region following his death. White House national security advisor Condoleezza Rice said in a round of interviews on US television stations that the US did not have advance warning of the assassination.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Israel's assassination of Hamas leader and said it would do nothing to help Middle East peace efforts.

Arab Gulf states urged the world to “press Israel to halt its terrorist operations and to end the occupation of the Palestinian and Arab territories.” Their statement was issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

EU foreign ministers, at a regular monthly meeting, condemned the “extra-judicial killing” but also recalled past EU condemnations of Hamas suicide bombings and urged restraint on all sides.

The Yemeni Foreign Ministry said all efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict collapsed with Yassin's killing.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, another broker in the peace process, said he was “pained” by the killing. In Amman, about 15,000 protesters — including four Cabinet ministers and other lawmakers — marched following afternoon prayers at a downtown mosque, angrily chanting, “We will not be humiliated and we will not be gentle. We are on the path of Ahmed Yassin.”

About 7,000 students demonstrated in Cairo's Al-Azhar University, while about 3,000 at San'a University in Yemen accused the United States of giving “the green light to Israel to assassinate Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said the assassination “will push the region into a new cycle of violence and terrorism and undermine any hope for achieving peace in the Middle East.” Thousands of Palestinians protested near the southern Lebanon city of Sidon and the northern city of Tripoli, burning tires and homemade Israeli flags. Hizbollah said Israelis would “pay a heavy price for their ugly crime.”

In Kuwait, one of America's closest allies in the Arab world, the prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, said violence would increase.

Iranian President Muhammad Khatami said the assassination “reflects a cowardly behavior of the occupying Israeli regime as well as its fear of Palestinian resistance, which is centered on their religious faith.”

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the biggest recipient of US aid in the Arab world after Iraq, said the assassination “aborted the peace process,” but also called for a return to direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Egypt said it would boycott March 26 celebrations of the anniversary of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Thousands of Egyptian students from Al-Azhar University burn British and American flags as they demonstrate against the Israeli killing

Iran called the killing a “further example of the Zionist regime's barbarity.”

In Mosul, the third-largest city of US-occupied Iraq, about 500 students demonstrated against the killing of Yassin on the campus of the university, burning an Israeli and an American flag and chanting anti-American slogans.

Pakistan said the Hamas leader had “embraced martyrdom… It is impossible to quell freedom movements by brutal use of force,” he added in comments reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency, monitored by the BBC.

“It's unacceptable, it's unjustified, and it's very unlikely to achieve its objective,” said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said it would “only fuel the cycle of violence.”

Russia called for restraint by Israelis and Palestinians and China said it was “deeply worried” by the killing. The pope's spokesman said the Vatican deplored it.

END