'My goal is to kill Ariel Sharon'

In case he wasn't clear enough during an exclusive interview this week in which he said his terror group would target the ranch of Israel's prime minister with rockets, the spokesman for a coalition of three Palestinian terror groups warned on an American radio show the same day his "first and foremost goal" is to kill Ariel Sharon. Listen to ABC Radio's John Batchelor & Jerusalem chief Aaron Klein conduct a live interview with Mohamed Abdel-Al aka Abu Abir, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, a network of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorists. The Committees has taken responsibility for many of the rockets fired at Israeli towns the past few years and for more than a dozen suicide attacks. It also was blamed for the bombing of a U.S. convoy in Gaza in October 2003, killing three Americans. "I want to say the first and foremost goal is to kill Sharon. I want to make life hell for him because he made life hellish for Palestinians," Abdel-Al said during the segment, which aired Monday on the nationally syndicated John Batchelor Show. The interview questions were translated live into Arabic and Abdel-Al's responses were translated back to English. Batchelor and Klein also ask Abdel-Al about the American convoy attack and whether he was trying to embarrass Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas by committing attacks ahead of his visit with President Bush yesterday. Abdel-Al's threats to Sharon came one day after the Israeli Defense Forces found a Qassam rocket just outside Sharon's Sycamore ranch, located a few kilometers from Sderot, the town at which more than 20 rockets were fired immediately following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last month. The Qassam rocket at the prime minister's ranch was found next to the grave site of Sharon's wife, Lili. IDF sappers said the attack took place three weeks ago, during the latest round of rocket fire at southern Israel from Gaza. Abdel-Al told reporters both his group and Hamas launched many rockets the past few weeks and he cannot confirm which batch hit near Sharon's ranch. But he warned, "We shall use these rockets against Sderot, against Sharon's ranch and against every city in Israel any time there is need to do so. The Israelis shall wait for surprises from the Palestinian resistance. ... If there is need, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and everywhere in Israel can become our target. Israelis must also know that we have already transferred the knowledge and the technology of producing rockets to the West Bank."