Good read. Another one bites the dust. <g>
Disabled Militant's Defiant Last Battle
Legless, 1-Armed Palestinian Dies Shooting
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 15, 2002; Page A20
JERUSALEM, Aug. 14 -- Naser Jarrar, a Palestinian militant with no legs, one hand and a 20-year history of run-ins with the Israeli military, made his last stand today.
In the end, Jarrar used his only remaining hand to shoot at Israeli soldiers advancing on the house where he lived and from where, Israeli officials said, he was involved in a conspiracy to blow up Israeli civilians. But rockets launched from a U.S.-supplied AH-64 Apache helicopter exploded into the house, ending the resistance. The Israeli military then bulldozed the house, leaving family members with nothing more than Jarrar's head and a small chunk of his torso to bury, according to his brother.
So ended the resilient career of Naser Jarrar, 44, who was jailed at age 20 for attacking an Israeli army bus, served 15 years in Israeli prisons and spent the last several months fleeing Israeli soldiers who were out to kill or capture him. Finally, after shooting another of his brothers and destroying two of his residences over the last four months, Israeli forces brought down Jarrar in the little town of Tubas, according to his brother, Walid Jarrar, a 62-year-old pharmacist.
"About an hour ago we received his body," Walid Jarrar said tonight in an interview from his home in Burqin, west of the West Bank city of Jenin. "It was a direct hit by a rocket. Only his head and a small part of his body were recovered."
The Israeli military, in a statement, said Naser Jarrar was a senior militant in the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. "Jarrar recruited suicide bombers who are supposed to commit terror attacks in central areas in Israel, as well as a major attack to bring down a multi-story building," the statement said.
Walid Jarrar described this afternoon's assault on a house where his brother was living in the town, about halfway between the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin, as recounted to him by a Palestinian witness.
"They bombarded the house with heavy machine-gun fire from helicopters," Jarrar said. When Israeli soldiers tried to approach the house, he said, occupants opened fire on them. Soldiers then shouted for the people inside to surrender.
"From what I understand, he [Naser Jarrar] was shooting," his brother said. "Apparently he was covering those who were with him while they ran. He couldn't move so he stayed in the house and kept shooting.
"The house was bombarded again with rockets from helicopters, and then a bulldozer bulldozed the house," the brother said. "As a result Naser was martyred," he added, using the word Palestinians employ to mean dying in the fight against Israel.
Jarrar said a second man, who has not been identified, also was killed in the attack. A taxi driver was wounded and a fourth man escaped, Jarrar said.
Jarrar said the family knew his brother was wanted by Israeli authorities. The house Naser Jarrar had shared with his pregnant wife, three children and his mother in Jenin was destroyed by rocket fire in April, Walid Jarrar said. Israeli forces invaded the city and its adjacent refugee camp then, destroying several city blocks of houses, apartments and shops.
"We heard that he is affiliated with Hamas, but we don't know," Jarrar said.
According to Jarrar, several days ago another brother, 41-year-old Yihia Jarrar, was shot five times by Israeli soldiers. He is now in a hospital in Amman, Jordan, recovering from the wounds, including one from a bullet that lodged a half-inch from his heart. Walid Jarrar said Yihia was not wanted or accused of being a militant by Israeli authorities.
The Israeli military and Jarrar's family gave different accounts of Naser Jarrar's personal history.
The military said he lost a hand and both of his legs in May 2001 when some explosive devices he was planning to use in an attack accidentally detonated. But Walid Jarrar said one of his brother's legs and an arm were blown off when Israeli tanks opened fire on his house just over a year ago and that he lost the second leg in the attack on his house in Jenin in April.
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