US, British withdrew from WBank prison before raid

JERUSALEM, Mar 14 (Reuters) The United States and Britain withdrew their monitors today from a Palestinian prison because of security concerns just before Israel moved in to apprehend a militant leader held there, US officials said.

The US and British monitors provided supervision at the prison complex in the West Bank city of Jericho which holds Ahmed Saadat, leader of militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and other militants. Saadat was jailed over the assissination of an Israeli minister.

The United States and Britain told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this month in a letter that the monitors would be withdrawn because security improvements had not been made at the prison, US and British officials said.

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