JERUSALEM – Israeli forces yesterday tracked down and killed the mastermind of a homicide bombing and uncovered an explosives cache that was to be used in a new attack, authorities said.
Ali Ajouri, a top commander in Yasser Arafat’s Tanzim paramilitary, was surprised by commandos in a village near the West Bank town of Jenin.
After a brief chase, Ajouri and a second Palestinian militiaman were killed in a hail of gunfire, authorities said.
Ajouri was described as the “dispatcher” of two homicide bombers who blew themselves up in Tel Aviv’s old bus station last month, killing five people.
Also yesterday, security forces said they uncovered a large amount of explosives on a main road to Jerusalem that apparently had been hidden there for a future bomb attack in the Israeli capital.
Meanwhile, the Israeli interior ministry said it would take the unprecedented action of revoking the citizenship of Israeli Arabs connected to terrorist groups.
Minister Eli Yishai sent letters to two men suspected of ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other guerrilla groups, saying he was acting under a law designed to punish any citizen guilty of “a breach of trust with the state of Israel.”With Post Wire Services