TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Israeli troops Wednesday killed two Islamic Jihad commanders and their assistant in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad is very active in Jenin, having launched many of the recent attacks against Israel, including last week's attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. It has refused to subscribe to the cease-fire with Israel along the Gaza Strip's border.
An undercover border police unit, backed by soldiers and the Shabak security service, set out to arrest the militants. One of them, Ashraf Mahmoud Nafaa Saadi, 29, opened fire at the plainclothes Border Police undercover unit and lightly wounded its commander, Israel security sources said.
The Israelis killed the three in the ensuing exchange of fire.
The Palestinian Maan News Agency said the Israelis had entered the Jenin refugee camp in a civilian car with Palestinian number plates.
Local sources told the agency the Israelis pursued the militants through the city's streets. The militants tried to flee through the refugee camp's alleys but another Israeli force ambushed them. Saadi got out of the car, opened fire, was shot, and the militants' car hit a wall.
The Israeli security sources said that Saadi was responsible for many shooting and bombing attacks in the region and cooperated with senior Islamic Jihad members involved in suicide attacks in the past two years.
They identified the second Islamic Jihad local commander as Mohammad Ibrahim Mahmoud Ahmad, 34. The third man, Alaa Rafik Daoud Jabali, was a taxi driver who helped them and was also considered a member of the Islamic Jihad, Maan reported.
