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Sharon vows to continue crackdown

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that security forces would continue tracking Palestinian militants if the Palestinian Authority does not crack down on violent groups. Hamas leaders vowed revenge for the latest killing of a top militant.

Sharon's comments at a weekly Cabinet meeting came as international mediators were scheduled to meet to discuss ways of salvaging a US-backed peace plan.

Efforts to implement the plan have been bedeviled by continuing violence -- Hamas attacks on Israelis and Israeli strikes against the militants -- even as Palestinian officials are negotiating with Hamas and other violent groups in a bid to persuade them to stop attacks.

The Israeli army said Abdullah Kawasme, the senior Hamas leader in Hebron, was shot Saturday during an attempt to arrest him. Military sources said he was armed with an M-16 rifle and did not heed an order to stop. Palestinians called the incident an assassination.

Sharon called the operation "successful" and warned that if the Palestinian Authority continued to avoid taking "serious counter-terrorist actions ... we will continue with our actions to bring security to the people of Israel."

Israel accuses Kawasme of masterminding a number of attacks that killed over 40 Israelis, including 17 who died in a June 11 suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to undermine their efforts to win a Hamas pledge to stop attacks.

"Israel aims to sabotage the possibility of reaching a common Palestinian understanding among the Palestinian factions," Ziad Abu Amr, the Palestinian minister in charge of negotiating a truce, said late Saturday.

Hamas' military wing promised "immediate reaction" for the shooting in a statement yesterday.

"There will be a retaliation," Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who survived a recent Israeli missile strike against him, told reporters in Gaza.

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