RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 28 (AFP) - A suspected Palestinian collaborator with Israel was executed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades late Saturday outside a mosque in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the militant group and Palestinian security sources said.
Hassan Abu Sufiya, 27, from the village of Beit Sira 15 kilometres (nine miles) west of Ramallah, died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest, they said.
He was killed in front of dozens of onlookers outside a mosque in Ramallah's Al-Amari refugee camp by two gunmen, one of them masked.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the execution in a phonecall to AFP, saying Sufiya was killed because he had provided information to the army since the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000.
"He was executed because he has collaborated with the army for four years to kill and arrest wanted Palestinians," the caller said.
Earlier, witnesses said they recognised the second gunman, who was not masked, as a known member of the Brigades, and Palestinian sources said they had been informed unofficially that the group was responsible for the killing.
Such an execution -- in front of a mosque and in full public view -- is usually a sign that someone is suspected of collaborating with Israel in its occupation of the Palestinian territories.