Israel puts teenager 'bomber' on trial

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JERUSALEM - Israeli prosecutors indicted a teenage would-be suicide bomber Sunday whose globally televised surrender last month brought condemnation of Palestinian militants.

Sixteen-year-old Hussam Abdu had a bomb strapped to his body when soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus. TV footage of the bewildered-looking boy trying to remove the bomb belt was shown around the world.

According to the charge sheet, Abdu told investigators that he was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

They gave him the explosives belt with which he was meant to carry out the attack on March 23, it said.

Abdu will be tried in a military court, starting on July 8. If found guilty, he could face a maximum of life in prison. But military sources said his youth could be a mitigating factor.

Abdu was arrested the day after Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Palestinian factions have vowed to avenge his killing and that of his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, Saturday.

There was a surge of anger among Palestinians that militants would send someone so young to carry out an attack. "I'm angry at those who recruited him and angry at Israel because its measures lead to all this," said Abdu's father Bilal.

Suicide bombers have killed hundreds of Israelis during the 3-1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israel.

14-year-old suicide bomber arrested

Herald Feature: The Middle East