[AFP/Yahoo] Charles Levinson - Voting for student government at Gaza City's Al-Azhar University was proceeding smoothly on a recent fall morning until a pushing match erupted outside a polling booth. Kalashnikovs appeared seemingly from nowhere as gunmen stormed onto campus. Panicked students scrambled for shelter beneath bursts of automatic gunfire. Al-Azhar is a Fatah stronghold. Next door, the Islamic University is Hamas country. Dozens of windows at the Islamic University remain shattered from a recent battle sparked by an inflammatory speech by exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus. Stones and fists soon turned to guns, and before the dust had settled, a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into an Al-Azhar classroom.
2006-12-01 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive