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Friday, March 05, 2010 JERUSALEM: Clashes erupted Friday between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police at a sacred and disputed hilltop compound following a sermon on a recent Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites. Worshippers emerging from Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque threw stones at policemen, according to Israeli police. Israeli riot-control forces waiting outside the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary rushed in to restore order, using stun grenades to disperse the crowd, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. Other Muslim worshippers intervened to try to defuse the clash, and police eventually withdrew in coordination with the Muslim clerics who administer the compound, he said. A small number of light injuries were reported by both sides. Always tense, the compound has recently seen sporadic clashes linked at least in part to the Israeli government deci...

Sunday, February 28, 2010 JERUSALEM: Clashes broke out at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday after police entered to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they believed were Jewish extremists. At least 13 people were wounded just outside the compound when dozens of Palestinians pelted stones at Israeli police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, according to a French news agency. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said security forces entered the compound after Muslim worshippers threw rocks at the group of unidentified visitors. "Around 20 young people are holed up inside the mosque, and as a preventive measure we have decided to limit access to the esplanade to men over the age of 50," as well as women and children, he added. Dozens of police wearing riot gear were deployed throughout the narrow streets of the Old City as loudspeakers on minarets called on Muslims to "save Jerusalem." An official from ...