Fri Mar 29, 6:32 PM ET
By HADEEL WAHDAN, Associated Press Writer
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israeli troops backed by tanks swarmed into Yasser Arafat's headquarters Friday, punching holes in walls and fighting room to room as the Palestinian leader huddled in a windowless office and made frantic appeals to world leaders by cellphone.
Five Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed as Israeli forces took over the West Bank city of Ramallah and Arafat's sprawling compound, where 25 Palestinians were wounded and 60 detained.
In the latest Palestinian attack, an 18-year-old woman blew herself up at the entrance of a Jerusalem supermarket, killing herself and two Israelis. The Al-Aqsa Brigades, a militia close to Arafat's Fatah movement, said it sent the bomber.
The Ramallah operation was described by Israeli officials as the first stage of a much larger assault aimed at destroying the "terrorist infrastructure" that Israelis blame for the hundreds of deaths they have suffered in 18 months of relentless violence. More than a thousand Palestinians also have died.
Israel said it had no plans to kill Arafat but wanted to isolate him.
