Gunmen attack convoy of Hamas minister

[citizen snips]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gunmen attacked the convoy of the Palestinian foreign minister and raided a training base for an elite security forces unit Sunday, stepping up factional violence over a decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end nine months of Hamas rule and call early elections.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Hamas would boycott the vote. In one symbolic attack, Abbas' empty residence came under fire.

The foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, escaped unharmed after the attack on his convoy, which unleashed a ferocious battle between Hamas and Fatah gunmen that raged for more than an hour in Gaza City. During the fighting, which left a 19-year-old woman dead, Hamas gunmen fired at Abbas' empty Gaza City residence.

Earlier in the day, dozens of gunmen raided a training camp of Abbas' Presidential Guard near the residence, killing a member of the elite force. During the funeral procession for the guardsman, Fatah supporters fired into the air, drawing a similar response from nervous Hamas militiamen.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_politics