Palestinian Radicals Confront Arafat and Israel

ISLAMIC militants yesterday prevented Yasser Arafat from attending the funeral of one of their leaders, accusing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman of collaborating with Israel.

Hani Abed, leader of the Islamic resistance movement known as Jihad, was killed when a bomb exploded in the trunk of his car Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Sheik Jamil Hamami and Sheik Hussein Abu Kwaik, two clerical leaders of Hamas - the largest Islamic faction opposed to the Israel-PLO peace accord - said Wednesday they were ready to open a dialogue with Israel. Mr. Hamami, who runs clinics and schools in Jerusalem, said he wanted to end the bloodshed.

But Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin rejected the proposal of talks with Hamas, calling the group the enemy of peace.

Violence mounts in Algeria

uslim militants have stepped up their campaign to overthrow the government of Algeria, despite a pledge by President Liamine Zeroual to hold elections next year.

Gunmen murdered the military commander of Algiers, Col. Djelloul Hadj Cherif, Wednesday, and government troops killed 13 armed militants in two raids in the capital. Sources in France, Algeria's former colonial power, say the North African country is on the verge of full-scale civil war.

President Zeroul said on Monday that efforts to hold a dialogue with the opposition Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had failed and announced a plan to hold elections before the end of 1995. FIS dismissed the move and said the armed struggle would go on.

The Algerian government says about 10,000 people have been killed in a conflict that erupted when the Army-backed authorities canceled an election in 1991 that the Islamic Salvation Front appeared set to win.

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