Well, protecting ships against terrorist attack is extremely difficult in some of these ports without declaring a free-fire zone around the ship's perimeter.
But it is a clear sign that certain groups would like to decrease US presence in the region, or for us to become overly cautious and defensive...
In addition, I understand that the Israelis targeted the area around Arafat's headquarters in Gaza and this is a clear signal to him that the Israelis have had enough.
cnn.com
-- Israeli forces fired into Ramallah and Gaza on Thursday, hours after a Palestinian mob killed at least two captured Israeli soldiers held at a Palestinian police station in Ramallah.
CNN Producer Sausan Ghosheh reported from inside Ramallah that missiles fired by the Israeli helicopters destroyed the top floor of a police station. She said the ground floor had also been badly damaged, and at least 16 people injured.
Outside the ruined police station, angry Palestinians gathered, many saying the attack was a declaration of war, she said
Ghosheh reported that a police station in another part of the city, as well as a building used as offices by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, had also been hit.
After the initial attack, Israeli helicopters and other aircraft flew overhead as soldiers stationed outside the West Bank town waited in sandbagged bunkers.
In Gaza City, CNN's Rula Amin reported that Israeli gunboats patrolled off the coast of the Palestinian city. Witnesses said that helicopters fired in the vicinity of Arafat's headquarters there, but the building was not hit.
Immediately after the air strikes, Israeli officials closed all Palestinian-controlled areas, barring, except in extreme emergency, Palestinians from traveling outside their communities.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called the situation "grave" and canceled all his appointments for the day.
Israeli Army Col. Raanan Gissin told CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna that the attack on Ramallah was "more than retaliation" for the deaths of the soldiers.
"Our purpose and mission is really to deliver a very stern message that these things cannot be tolerated," Gissin said. "Even in a war there is certain convention that can't be violated, and this is a violation of the worst way."
Israelis, Palestinians blame each other
Gissin said that the mob attack that left the two soldiers dead was unwarranted and unprovoked.
"We've been trying to argue with the Palestinians that they should take control of the situation," he said. "But what happened today seems the complete lack of control and unfortunately instigated and supported as we know by some of the Palestinian police."
But the Palestinians said that the soldiers were on an undercover mission, in civilian clothes and driving a civilian car, when they were captured. The Israeli army said the men were reservists trying to reach their post when they took a wrong turn.
An earlier report that the army had confirmed the men were undercover was in error.
Israeli military officials said that two other soldiers were unaccounted for after the attack, but Nabil Abu-Rudeinah, an adviser to Palestinian leader Arafat, said the Palestinians were not aware of any other soldiers.
The dead soldiers' bodies have been turned over to Israeli authorities.
The incident soured diplomatic efforts to end two weeks of bloody battles between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, who erupted in anger after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited a bitterly contested religious site in east Jerusalem.
Nearly 100 people -- all but about seven of them Palestinians or Israeli-Arabs -- have been killed in the violence, and thousands more wounded.
Con't..... |
