Troops Hit the Heart of Palestinian Power Base

RAMALLAH, West Bank —  First the tanks and armored bulldozers punched holes in the high brick perimeter walls that shielded Yasser Arafat’s headquarters and sanctuary.

Then they smashed through the metal gates on three sides of the compound, which takes up a city block. The black iron door that once glided open for visiting dignitaries lay askew in the debris.

Once they’d gained entry, the tanks and armored personnel carriers roared into the Palestinian Authority president’s parking lot and across his helipad, homing in on three buildings that were the heart of the headquarters.

Arafat’s offices, where he had been confined for more than three months, are in the middle building.

The building to the east is the intelligence division, where the Israeli forces opened a garage-size hole in the facade and then strafed it with sustained fire from heavy-caliber tank-mounted machine guns.

The building to the west is the governor’s offices. There too troops opened a gap and blew a metal door off its hinges. Inside, they shot through each room and tossed stun grenades for good measure.

They also smashed the snack bar. A red soft-drink vending machine and an ice cream stand protruded from the rubble.

The region’s most powerful army was a well-armed wrecking crew Friday.

Piece by piece, Israeli forces were dismantling Arafat’s headquarters, his power base. With it, the army of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was symbolically dismantling Arafat’s legendary mystique as the ultimate survivor. Arafat was no longer in charge but utterly besieged, trapped in a couple of rooms, surrounded by the enemy.

Sharon says he is dismantling the “terror infrastructure” that he charges Arafat built and operated out of his headquarters, after the Palestinian leader failed to stop a deadly wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks by Palestinian militants.

Throughout much of Friday, the Israelis pounded the headquarters with stun grenades--more for psychological impact than actual damage--and fought sporadic gun battles with Arafat’s guards. They shelled the intelligence office, and snipers were posted in spots.

Arafat was essentially caught in a pincers movement, with soldiers inching toward him from two sides.

Arafat used the time to grant one interview after another to Arabic-language television stations and to telephone various foreign leaders to appeal for help.

The facade of the intelligence building was splattered with copper-colored scorch marks. The air was full of grayish dust from the debris, patted down periodically by a cold rain.

Israeli Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, head of the Central Command that oversees the West Bank, said his forces had seized control of all of the compound except the floor of the building where Arafat lives.