"They have no problem conducting suicide operations and murdering as many people as possible to make a show of it.
With Hamas gaining popularity, the group began in January 2002 to conduct suicide bombings and shootings against Israelis, after Israel killed a popular local leader of the group.
After Mr. Karmi's killing, Mr. Barghouti said, Fatah activists began attacking Israelis across the 1967 boundary, even conducting suicide bombings.
It conducted suicide bombings and assaults at tourism centers, prompting Turkey, the European Union and the United States to label it a terrorist organization.
On a Web site, he replied to a letter in which followers vowed to conduct suicide attacks by saying, "Thank you my dear friends, God bless you".
Correction: September 22 , 2001 Saturday An article on Sept. 12 about the psychology of suicide bombers misstated the name of the leader of the Assassins, the 11th-century Persian sect that conducted suicide raids on neighboring fortresses.
The history of suicide attacks stretches back at least to the 11th century, when the Assassins, the disciples of the Persian master Alamut, conducted suicide raids on neighboring fortresses.
"We've seen a real step up on the part of these professional terrorists from Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam conducting suicide attacks," L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq, said on Monday.
Based in Damascus, Syria, and supported by Iran, the group has conducted suicide attacks in which scores of Israelis, and at least one American, have been killed or wounded.
She played down recent violence in various parts of Iraq, saying that there would be days when "extremists manage, despite the fact they clearly are weakened," to conduct suicide bombings and other attacks.
