TeHe
11-06-2006, 03:08
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5068478.stm
West Bank gunmen free US student
Palestinian gunmen have released a US student in the West Bank just hours after abducting him.
Activists claiming to represent the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades seized him in the city of Nablus, apparently mistaking him for an Israeli.
They threatened to kill the student, Benjamin Bight-Fishbein, unless Israel freed all its Palestinian prisoners.
But he was handed over to Palestinian security forces after his kidnappers learned of his real nationality.
Mr Bight-Fishbein - an undergraduate from Brown University in the state of Rhode Island - told Reuters news agency that his lone visit to Nablus had been "a big mistake".
Manhunt
On Saturday, news that a hostage had been seized sparked a frantic search by Israeli and Palestinian forces to try to track down the kidnappers, Reuters reports.
"In the end, I got the impression that they were in over their heads and they were going crazy talking on the phone. They clearly had no idea what they were doing," Mr Bight-Fishbein told the agency.
Palestinian security sources said an investigation had begun into who carried out the kidnapping.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are an offshoot of the Fatah movement, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The brigades are splintered into various groups that often have little co-ordination with each other.
Wow. Maybe we're not quite as hated as I thought...
West Bank gunmen free US student
Palestinian gunmen have released a US student in the West Bank just hours after abducting him.
Activists claiming to represent the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades seized him in the city of Nablus, apparently mistaking him for an Israeli.
They threatened to kill the student, Benjamin Bight-Fishbein, unless Israel freed all its Palestinian prisoners.
But he was handed over to Palestinian security forces after his kidnappers learned of his real nationality.
Mr Bight-Fishbein - an undergraduate from Brown University in the state of Rhode Island - told Reuters news agency that his lone visit to Nablus had been "a big mistake".
Manhunt
On Saturday, news that a hostage had been seized sparked a frantic search by Israeli and Palestinian forces to try to track down the kidnappers, Reuters reports.
"In the end, I got the impression that they were in over their heads and they were going crazy talking on the phone. They clearly had no idea what they were doing," Mr Bight-Fishbein told the agency.
Palestinian security sources said an investigation had begun into who carried out the kidnapping.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are an offshoot of the Fatah movement, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The brigades are splintered into various groups that often have little co-ordination with each other.
Wow. Maybe we're not quite as hated as I thought...