Palestinians burn US flags on eve of Powell's first trip

Palestinians burn US flags on eve of Powell's first trip
ASSOCIATED PRESS

FEB 24: On the eve of US Secretary of State Colin Powell's first Mideast trip, Palestinians burned US flags, Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian police stations and West Bank gunmen battled Israeli soldiers.

One Palestinian was killed and a second seriously wounded by Israeli fire in the latest flare-up. In all, 407 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in five months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Powell's Mideast visit comes at a time of growing anti-US sentiment among Palestinians, in response to last week's US air strikes against Iraq.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, about 2,000 demonstrators cheered today as masked men burned US flags and a cardboard model of a US missile with pictures of US President George W. Bush pasted on it.

After the March, dozens of demonstrators hurled stones at Israeli troops who responded with rubber-coated steel bullets. Ten Palestinians were hurt. Later, gunmen in the crowd shot at Israeli troops who returned fire.

Powell was to arrive in the region tomorrow and hold separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Sunday.

His whirlwind visit was not expected to bring Israel and the Palestinians closer to a resumption of peace talks, with both having set rigid conditions.

The Palestinians say negotiations must resume at the point where they left off last month, a demand Sharon has rejected. Sharon, in turn, has said he will not negotiate under fire. The Palestinians say Israel is the sole aggressor, and demand that Israel lift its blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip before talks resume.