HAMAS Ousts Al Qaeda Group in Gaza

The Gazan Army and police surrounded a Mosque where 100 Al Qaeda linked supporters were entrenched and armed. After sealing off the entire neighbourhood and a long gun battle the Gaza police and Army have now gained control of the area. Several were injured, one member of the Gazan army was killed, one child was killed when a grenade was thrown out of the Mosque. Reports are that 13 were killed, so minus the two mentioned the other 10 were members of the Al Qaeda linked group. updated x1 Aljazeera is reporting 16 dead here

At least 13 people have been killed and at least 85 injured in a fierce gun battle in Gaza, emergency services say.

Eyewitnesses say hundreds of Hamas fighters and policemen surrounded a mosque where followers of a radical Islamist cleric were holed up.

Hamas fired rocket-propelled grenades at the mosque and stormed the leader's house in Rafah, near the Egypt border.

It is thought that at least 100 supporters of the al-Qaeda-linked group, Jund Ansar Allah, were inside.

Hamas has cracked down on al-Qaeda-inspired groups in the past, the BBC's Middle East correspondent Katya Adler says.

Hamas is concerned they may attract more extremist members, and has forbidden anyone except what it describes as Hamas security personnel from carrying weapons in Gaza, our correspondent says. source