JENIN, West Bank - The Palestinian security services launched a campaign to arrest armed militants in the West Bank town of Jenin on Friday after a policeman was shot dead overnight, witnesses and officials said.
At least five militants suspected of involvement in the fatal shooting had been detained, General Ali Abu Al-Fath, the overall commander of security forces in the Jenin region, told AFP.
Exchanges of fire broke out during the arrest operations, he added, without saying if there had been any injuries.
The campaign of arrests appeared primarily to target members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical splinter of the mainstream Fatah movement and which is particularly strong in Jenin.
The policeman, 24-year-old Zyad Bsur, was shot dead on Thursday night by a group of Al-Aqsa followers during clashes which erupted after gunmen targeted local MP Jamal al-Shatti as he was driving through town.
Police sent reinforcements and a pitched battle broke out between dozens of policemen and militants. The seriously wounded policeman was evacuated to a city hospital, where he later died.
The gunmen were led by an Al-Aqsa member who had earlier been questioned by police for three hours following a complaint by Shatti.
The incident further underlined the breakdown in law and order in the occupied territories that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has vowed to stamp out.
An activist of Al-Aqsa opened fire at the front of a building in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank earlier this week while prime minister Ahmed Qorei was inside.
Qorei has threatened to suspend his government unless the security services gets to grips with what he calls the "armed chaos".
06/24/2005 10:07 GMT