RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 29 (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers
shot dead one of Yasser Arafat's bodyguards and wounded more
than 20 people on Friday in close combat in a building inside
the Palestinian president's headquarters, an Arafat aide said.
Nabil Abu Rdainah said Arafat was well and "in good
spirits," despite the Israeli occupation of Ramallah.
"President Arafat is in good spirits. He is not hurt, he is
busy on the phone to world leaders," he told Reuters.
Officials at the Ramallah hospital said five Palestinians
had been killed and 51 injured, seven of them critically, since
Israeli troops rumbled into Ramallah, knocked down walls and
took positions inside Arafat's compound.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in a televised news
conference earlier on Friday, declared Arafat "an enemy" and
said widespread action would be taken to isolate his Palestinian
Authority wherever it was believed to be fostering a "terrorist
infrastructure".
((Jerusalem Newsroom, +972 2 537 0502;
jerusalem.newsroom@reuters.com))
http://www.reuters.co.il/news2000/N2STO62I.HTM