Hamas leader killed in Israeli air strike

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin as he left a mosque near his house at daybreak Monday, residents said, and witnesses said he was killed.\nWitnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at Yassin and two bodyguards as they left the mosque, killing them instantly. Hamas officials confirmed he had been killed.\nYussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards.\n"Their bodies were shattered," he said.\nYassin, a quadriplegic, was by far the most senior Palestinian militant killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered around his house minutes after the attack, calling for revenge against Israel.\nAmbulances and fire trucks raced to the scene with sirens wailing, and rescue workers were gathering up body parts.\nYassin founded Hamas in 1987. He was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994. Various Hamas elements have used both political and violent means, including terrorism, to pursue the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel, according to an April 2003 U.S. Department of State report. Loosely structured, with some elements working clandestinely and others working openly through mosques and social service institutions to recruit members, raise money, organize activities, and distribute propaganda. Hamas has also engaged in peaceful political activity, such as running candidates in West Bank Chamber of Commerce elections, the report said.\nIn September 2002, Yassin escaped an Israeli missile strike on a Gaza building with a small wound on his hand.