(Jerusalem Post) Matthew Gutman and Khaled Abu Toameh - Islamic Jihad recruited Tamer Khawireh, 15, to be a suicide bomber, one of four Nablus boys recruited by terrorist groups and then arrested in the past month. Khawireh's stunned father, Massoud, said Tuesday that he called Islamic Jihad to demand an explanation. They apologized, lamely arguing that they mistook the 10th grader for an 18-year-old, and promising not to do it again. "We discovered the plan only three hours before my brother was supposed to set out on the suicide mission," said Tamer's eldest brother, Raed. In Nablus's central market, one man swore that the Shin Bet had fabricated the stories of youths being conscripted, that "no Palestinian group would do such a thing." When asked how many of them believed that version, all the men in the crowd, young and old, raised their hands. In public, Tamer's father also stuck to the standard Palestinian line: Israel is to blame.
2004-04-01 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive