Top Islamic militant killed

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli helicopters launched four missiles at a car carrying Islamic militants in Gaza City on Thursday, killing a top commander and wounding 12 bystanders, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said.\nThe leader of the Islamic Jihad's military wing, Mahmoud Zatme, 30, died in the attack, a group official said. It was the second Israeli killing from the air this week in Gaza.\nIn other violence Thursday, Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank broke into an Israeli army base and killed two soldiers before being shot dead. Also, Israeli undercover troops killed a Palestinian militant and wounded four others.\nIn the helicopter strike in Gaza, witnesses said one person fled from the burning car as black smoke billowed over the city. Residents, including children let out of school minutes before the attack, gathered to look at the car's twisted remains.\nThursday's strike followed one on Tuesday -- an Israeli F-16 warplane rocketed a car in Gaza, killing Saed Arabeed, 38, a senior Hamas commander, and six other people, including four civilians.\nThe Israeli military had no immediate comment on Thursday's strike. Israel often targets leaders of radical Palestinian groups, killing them in missile strikes and other attacks. Palestinians condemn the killings as assassinations that violate international law.\nThe attack on the army base targeted the training facility of the Golani infantry brigade in the northern Jordan Valley. Two Palestinians with assault rifles infiltrated the base before dawn by cutting through a fence and then fired at guards posted at the main entrance, killing one.\nOne assailant was killed by return fire, but the second assailant ran into the base, killing another soldier and wounding nine before escaping, the military said.\nTroops killed the second gunman during searches in the area, the officials said.\nThe Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, claimed responsibility for the attack in calls to The Associated Press.\nThe groups said they were retaliating for the killing of 12 Palestinians in clashes and Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip this week.\nArmed Palestinians repeatedly have attacked settlements and military bases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Several months ago, soldiers killed a Palestinian gunman trying to infiltrate the same base.\nIn the West Bank town of Tulkarem, undercover troops fired on a car carrying members of the Al Aqsa group, killing the driver and wounding four other people, the army said. An Al Aqsa spokesman said three militants escaped and four bystanders were detained.\nResidents said they saw two Palestinians lying on the ground before soldiers cordoned off the area and whisked them away. The car they were using and others nearby were pockmarked with bullet holes, witnesses said.\nIn Nablus, Israeli troops arrested four 17-year-old girls on suspicion of planning to carry out suicide attacks, the army said. The four attend the same school and their teachers said Thursday there were rumors the close friends were planning an attack.\nThe four come from secular backgrounds and have ties to Fatah, the teachers said.\nIn the West Bank village of Beit Rima near Ramallah, Israeli forces demolished the home of a captured senior Hamas leader it says was involved in dozens of deadly attacks on Israeli citizens.\nIsrael says its house demolitions are intended to deter attacks, but Palestinians say the demolitions amount to collective punishment that harms innocent relatives