Hamas battles Gaza militants

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas government forces stormed a mosque in the Gaza Strip on Friday and apparently subdued a heavily armed group of al-Qaida-inspired militants whose imam had vowed to impose theocratic rule in the Palestinian territory.

Sixteen people were reported killed in fighting that raged for much of the day in the city of Rafah.

Residents contacted by telephone said it took Hamas six hours to capture the two-story mosque from a group calling itself Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God. Fighting spread to the nearby home of the imam, who had fled the mosque, and ended early today after an explosion demolished part of the house, witnesses said.

Medical officials said the dead included combatants on both sides and civilians, including a child caught in the crossfire of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. At least 120 people were reported wounded.

The whereabouts of the imam, Abdel-Latif Moussa, were unclear.

Gaza’s Interior Ministry announced at 2 a.m. that its forces had regained full control of Rafah from what a Hamas spokesman, Sami abu Zuhri, called outlaws led by a “mentally disturbed” cleric. The city remained under military curfew.

Moussa, a 60-year-old Palestinian physician sporting a thick beard and red robe, triggered the confrontation with a defiant sermon and display of weapons during midday prayers. Surrounded by four black-clad, masked men with assault rifles, he declared his group would make Gaza an Islamic “emirate” by force of arms.

Witnesses said several hundred followers filled the mosque with shouts of approval. Al-Qaida uses the term “emirate” to mean a state of clerical rule across the Islamic world.

Hamas forces later ringed the mosque and demanded the surrender of the imam and his gunmen.

Rafah, along the Gaza-Egypt border, is a stronghold of Salafist groups that claim inspiration from al-Qaida and pose a growing challenge to Hamas, which they consider too liberal. Their numerical strength and links to al-Qaida are unclear.

Hamas itself is an armed Islamic movement with ties to Iran and Syria. But it defines its cause as a nationalist struggle against Israel, not global jihad against the West.

Despite scattered efforts by members of Hamas to impose dress codes on Gaza’s Mediterranean beaches and in other public places, its leaders have resisted Salafist demands to put Gaza under rigid fundamentalist rule. Jund Ansar Allah has threatened to burn down Internet cafes, which are popular among the enclave’s 1.5 million people.

The imam’s uprising was the strongest internal challenge to Gaza’s rulers since 2007, when Hamas gunmen ousted security forces of the secular, U.S.-backed Fatah movement that had long dominated Palestinian politics.