Ten-year-old Abir Aramin was apparently killed by a blunt object, and not by a rubber bullet, as some eyewitnesses claimed, according to the autopsy findings.

Aramin, of the West Bank village of Anata near Jerusalem, died last Thursday of injuries incurred two days earlier as she was standing near the entrance to her elementary school. Eyewitnesses blamed her death on Border Police in the vicinity, but disagreed over the cause, with some saying that she was struck by a rubber bullet and others citing a shock grenade.

Police sources said autopsy findings indicated Aramin could have been killed by concussion from a shock grenade or by a thrown rock.

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However, they said, the findings were inconsistent with her having been killed by a rubber bullet: No bullet wounds were found on her body, and the skull injury that caused her death was a large one, whereas rubber bullets, even if they do not penetrate, usually make small wounds.

The autopsy was performed last Friday at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir, with a pathologist hired by Aramin's family in attendance.

But while it demonstrated that Aramin was killed by a blunt object - a conclusion with which the family's pathologist concurs - the findings have thus far been insufficient to determine the exact cause of death, because part of her skull, containing vital clues, was removed during the operation that she underwent after being wounded last Tuesday.

Today, the pathologists are supposed to receive the results of two computer tomography (CT) scans that she underwent last Tuesday just before the operation, one at Mokassad Hospital in East Jerusalem and one at Hadassah Hospital, Ein Karem, and the pathologists are hoping that these results will help them to pinpoint the cause of death.

Border cops quizzed

Police investigators also questioned the Border Police involved in the incident under caution yesterday, and police sources said they plan to reenact the incident "as soon as possible." The date of the reenactment is being kept secret for fear that there might be rioting against the police.

The Border Police have admitted to firing rubber bullets, saying they did so to break up a violent demonstration that made them fear they would be lynched. However, they deny having hit Aramin.