ISRAEL CAPTURES PFLP COMMANDER

ISRAEL CAPTURES PFLP COMMANDER
Israel has captured the commander of a Syrian-aligned Palestinian insurgency group. Israeli forces arrested a senior operative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the northern West Bank. Matsab Mahmoud was identified as the joint head of the PFLP in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Mahmoud, 26, was arrested on Dec. 6 in Nablus. Mahmoud, declared a fugitive on July 2003, was said to have planned suicide bombings and recruited operatives from villages around Nablus. One Palestinian recruited by Mahmoud was Ahmed Smarah, arrested in 2003 on his way to carry out a suicide attack. Mahmoud was also said to have guided a cell from a Nablus-area village to carry out an attack in September 2004.