Hamas #1 Leader Is Killed

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Hamas militant group that targeted Israelis in suicide bombings, was killed by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he left a mosque at daybreak Monday, witnesses said.

Tens of thousands of Gaza residents, many of them in tears, poured into the streets after Hamas announced the death of the quadriplegic Yassin over mosque loudspeakers. Masked fighters at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Yassin's body was taken, shot into the air in rage. Angry mourners burned tires, sending black smoke over Gaza City.

Hamas, listed as a terrorist group by both the United States and Israel, vowed revenge against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group allied with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, also promised swift retaliation.

The Israeli army imposed a full closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip after Yassin's killing, dividing Gaza into three areas, preventing movement between them.

Witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at Yassin and two bodyguards as they left the mosque, killing them instantly. He was carried around in a special car that could accommodate his wheelchair.

Four people were killed and 17 were wounded in the attack, hospital officials said.

Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards.

"Their bodies were shattered," he said.

Yassin was by far the most senior Palestinian militant killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Since September 2000, 474 people - the majority of them Israelis - have been killed in 112 Palestinian suicide bombings, most of them carried out by Hamas.

One Israeli official recently said Yassin was "marked for death." Sharon's government has gone after militant leaders using Israeli helicopter gunships in a controversial policy that has resulted in a number of civilian casualties in addition to the deaths of senior figures in Hamas and other groups.

The army and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office declined to comment.

Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio, "I said for a long time that Yassin is a target for killing. He was not immune."

More than 150 Palestinian militants have been killed in targeted raids, according to Palestinian medical officials, though that total also includes militants killed resisting arrest.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia accused the Israelis of trying to escalate violence with the Palestinians.

"This is one of the biggest crimes that the Israeli government has committed," Qureia told The Associated Press. "Sheik Ahmed Yassin is one of the most important leaders in the Palestinian factions and Israel does know well what they had committed this morning."

In Cairo Monday, President Hosni Mubarak announced that in protest of the killing of Yassin, the planned visit of Egyptian legislators to Israel is being cancelled.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy William Burns, Mubarak called the killing "regrettable and cowardly."

Asked about the killing's likely impact on the peace process, Mubarak replied: "What peace process?"

Envoys from the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union have arranged to meet for talks on the consequences of Israel's killing of the Palestinian militant leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Monday.

"Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and Sheik Yassin himself has been heavily involved in terrorism," U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told CBS News' The Early Show.

In August 2003, the Bush administration froze the financial assets of six top officials of Hamas as well as five European charities said to be sending cash to the militants. President Bush took the action after Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a packed bus in Jerusalem that killed 20 people.

U.S. officials have said their conservative estimate is that Hamas raised several million dollars in the United States during the previous decade.

Yassin was viewed as an inspirational figure by his followers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. His death could spur violent protests not only in the Palestinian areas but in the wider Arab and Islamic world, where he was well-regarded as a symbol of the Palestinian battle for independence.

In announcing Yassin's death, Hamas said, "Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head."

Al Aqsa, a secular group responsible for dozens of attacks on Israelis, said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press, "An eye for an eye, and the retaliation will be in the coming hours, God willing."

Outside the morgue at Shifa Hospital, Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin, said, "This is the moment Sheik Yassin dreamed about. Sheik Yassin lived and died and offered his life to Palestine.

"Sheik Yassin was a hero and a fighter and the leader of a nation, and (he) is in heaven now."

Cars drove through the streets blaring calls for revenge over loudspeakers. Some aired recordings of Yassin, saying, "We chose this road, and will end with martyrdom or victory."

Mosques read passages from the Quran and two Gaza churches rang their church bells.

Yassin, who was paralyzed at age 12 in a sporting accident, founded Hamas at the start of the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, in 1987. It is an offshoot of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which is based in Egypt.

Yassin was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994. Israel tried unsuccessfully to kill him in a September missile strike that injured 16 people.

Past Israeli governments were reluctant to target Yassin, fearing a firestorm of revenge attacks.