Last update - 00:00 27/03/2007
IDF patrol kills 2 Palestinian gunmen in West Bank skirmish
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
A Palestinian militant group reported Tuesday that Israel Defense Forces troops had killed two Palestinian gunmen during a raid in the West Bank.
Israel Radio reported that a Golani infantry patrol operating in the Nablus Kasbah encountered several groups of gunmen and gunfights erupted as a result.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, announced the deaths over loudspeakers in the city of Nablus, a militant stronghold in which Israeli security forces often mount operations to detain wanted men.
Security forces later identified the gunmen as Fatah-linked activists who were involved in shooting attacks and in laying explosive devices against IDF forces.
A local hospital reported it had received the bodies of two Palestinians killed in the incident.
No soldiers were hurt in the skirmish and the force continued to operate in Nablus after the incident.
The radio said also that IDF forces arrested seven wanted Palestinian militants overnight in the West Bank.