Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinian militants who carried out West Bank bus attack

Palestine 23 Jan-Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian militants who carried out a deadly attack on a bus in the West Bank earlier this month.

The Israeli military said Thursday that the two men barricaded themselves in a structure in the West Bank village of Burqin and exchanged fire with Israeli troops before they were killed overnight. The army said a soldier was moderately wounded.

The military said Mohammed Nazzal and Katiba al-Shalabi were operatives with the Islamic Jihad militant group.

The Hamas militant group released a statement claiming the two men were members of its armed wing and praising the bus attack. Hamas and the smaller and more radical Islamic Jihad are allies that sometimes carry out attacks together.

The Jan. 6 attack on the bus carrying Israelis killed three people and wounded six others.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.