Israeli Settlers, Police Clash at West Bank

Six Israeli police officers and five settlers were injured early Tuesday morning in violent clashes that erupted as police dismantled an illegal settlement outpost, a police spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Police moved in to the Ali Ayan outpost in the West Bank north of Ramallah in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"Police, border police, and the army moved in there in the early morning in order to take down four illegal buildings that were built recently," he said.

"Immediately upon arriving in the area there was a strong response from settlers, who threw stones."

"Six police officers were injured lightly from stones and five settlers were also injured lightly (while) trying to attack police, who defended themselves."

Rosenfeld said three settlers were arrested for attacking police officers and that a firebomb was thrown at a police car several hours later.

It "was completely burnt, destroyed. It happened a few kilometers away and was probably in response" to the outpost demolition, he said.

On March 30, Israeli police arrested nine settlers after similar clashes at a settlement outpost in the northern West Bank.

Israel considers outposts built in the West Bank without government approval to be illegal, and often sends security personnel to demolish the wildcat settlements, which usually consist of little more than a few trailers.

The international community considers all settlements built in the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, to be illegal.