Abbas orders probe into Hamas preacher's death

Hamas Islamists have accused security agents from Abbas'smore secular Fatah faction of torturing to death imam Majdal-Barghouthi, a local Hamas leader in the West Bank city ofRamallah, near Jerusalem.

Abbas's security force said on Friday that Barghouthi haddied of a stroke. The 45-year-old father of nine had beendetained for a week before his death.

"President Abbas has demanded the attorney generalinvestigate ... the issue and give a report as soon aspossible," the official WAFA news agency said.

The head of a local hospital to which Barghouthi was takensaid he was dead when he arrived there.

"The man who arrived at the hospital was already dead,"physician and hospital manager Jamal al-Tarifi said.

Tarifi declined to say whether doctors had observed anysigns of violence on the body and said an autopsy would becarried out.

"We consider this a grave event that reflects the uglycrimes Abbas's forces commit against Hamas," the faction'sspokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza.

A statement issued by the Islamist group said Abbas'sdecision to order an investigation was "throwing sand in theeyes" of the public and held Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyadand intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi responsible for the death.

On Friday, members of the Barghouthi clan closed a majorWest Bank road near Ramallah, rioted and set ablaze tyres inprotest at the death.

Tension between Hamas and Fatah has increased since theIslamists took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloodycivil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in theIsraeli-occupied West Bank.

Fatah officials accuse Hamas of torturing Fatah detaineesin the Gaza Strip.

(Reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta; Writing byAri Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Editing by Caroline Drees)