IDF guns down Tel Aviv bombing accomplice
Jerusalem Post  | March 10. 2005 | Margot Dudkevitch
 

An Islamic Jihad fugitive involved in the suicide bomb attack at the Stage club in Tel Aviv two weeks ago was killed by soldiers who surrounded a house where he had hid out in Nazlat a Wista, southwest of Jenin, early Thursday morning.

The fugitive was identified as Mohammad Khalil, 26, originally from A-Til north of Tulkarm.

After receiving information as to his whereabouts, paratroopers surrounded the house while calling on the occupants to leave the building.

When the fugitive failed to appear, after several people had already left the building, the soldiers dispatched a tracker dog to find the fugitive.

Khalil shot and killed the dog and continued to ignore calls to surrender while continuing to shoot at the troops. In an attempt to force him out of the building, a bulldozer began demolishing the house.

While hiding in the attic, he continued shooting at soldiers and the bulldozer that demolished the house. Searching the area afterwards, soldiers discovered his body and a handgun.

The dog, a member of the elite Oketz dog-handling unit, was a black Belgian Shepherd named Arkos.

Security officials said Khalil was also involved in preparing a car packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives that was discovered by troops near Arabeh on February 28. It was to blow up next to a busload of soldiers.

In addition, he was in the midst of planning and preparing additional suicide bombing attacks aside from TA.

The officials stressed that the Islamic Jihad infrastructure in Tulkarm area received its instruction and funding from Islamic Jihad headquarters based in Damascus.