Hamas leader condemns 'extra-judicial' killing, disapproves of methods of Al-Qaeda

Ma'an, AFP – Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al on Friday condemned "extrajudicial executions", in the wake of the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"While we disapprove of the methods of Al-Qaeda, particularly actions directed against innocent civilians, we are opposed to the United States or any other party having recourse to extrajudicial executions," Mash'al said in a statement to AFP.

He also repeated his denunciation of the circumstances of bin Laden's death and burial, attacking "the spilling of Arab and Muslim blood and the violation of human dignity as happened during the death of Osama bin Laden and the immersion of his body."

On Thursday, Mash'al criticized the way in which bin Laden had been killed by US commandos and then buried at sea, calling on the West to "recognize the atrocity of the American raid and the burial of [bin Laden's body] at sea".

Soon after bin Laden's death was first announced, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, said: "We condemn any killing of a holy warrior or of a Muslim and Arab person and we ask God to bestow his mercy upon him".

That drew a sharp reaction from the United States, with State Department spokesman Mark Toner calling Haniyeh's remarks "outrageous".

"Bin Laden was a murderer and terrorist," he said.