Gunmen kill one, injure five at Arafat's mourning site
A PALESTINIAN policeman was killed and five other people were wounded when gunmen yesterday shot into the air at the mourning site of Yasser Arafat.
Gunmen fired in the air about five minutes after Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat's longtime deputy, who was chosen over the weekend as his successor, arrived in a motorcade. Abbas' bodyguards also fired in the air, the witnesses said.
Abbas was not wounded.
Suleiman Mahdi, a Palestinian Authority driver, said Abbas was shaking hands with visitors when the gunfire erupted. Security officers immediately surrounded Abbas, he said.
"They took him to a safe place, then he managed to get out of the area," Mahdi said.
Associated Press Television News footage showed a group of about 20 men entering the mourning tent where Abbas, Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan and other key Palestinian leaders had come to mourn Arafat, who died on Thursday.
The gunmen, clad in green, shouted, "Abbas and Dahlan are agents for the Americans!"
Gunfire then popped through the tent. Abbas' bodyguards hustled him into a corner as frightened mourners scrambled over plastic chairs to safety.
Abbas was taken to the Palestinian headquarters after the shooting, witnesses said.
