Sharon heads home early

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was last night considering ordering fresh strikes against Palestinian militants after two suicide bombings prompted him to cut short a trip to India.

On Wednesday an Israeli warplane narrowly failed to assassinate a Hamas leader but killed his son and a bodyguard in Gaza, the latest in a wave of tit-for-tat violence that is drowning a United States-backed peace plan in blood.

The Israeli strikes followed two Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 15 people in Israel earlier in the day.

Sharon flew home early from New Delhi, where he had pledged to work more closely with Indian leaders in fighting terrorism.