Palestinian motorist shot by convoy bodyguards

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian security men shot and seriously wounded a driver they believed was going to ram the convoy of a senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, police and medics said on Tuesday.

The incident in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where Abbas has his offices, underscored a rise in tension and violence between his Fatah movement and members of the rival Islamist group Hamas.

"A motorist tried to overtake the convoy of Mr Tayyeb Abel-Rahim, raising the suspicions of his bodyguards who shot at him," security forces spokesman Adnan Damiri said.

Asked if it was an accident or a deliberate threat, he said: "It is still under investigation."

The official news agency Wafa said the man was "driving fast in an erratic manner" and ignored frantic police warnings to stop. Bodyguards were forced to shoot at the wheels of the car "which resulted in the wounding of the motorist."

The father of the wounded man, contacted by Reuters at a Ramallah hospital, said it was an accident. He quoted what he said was an eyewitness as telling him his son's car was "not that close to the convoy."

The 25-year-old driver, a supporter of Abbas's Fatah movement according to his father, was at the wheel of a 1984 Renault compact. The aide to Abbas was traveling in an official black Mercedes Benz followed by a back-up security vehicle. He was not injured.

Hospital sources said the driver was hit three times in the body but was out of danger following emergency surgery.

"His condition is now stable," a doctor said.

The Palestinian Authority security service is concerned about possible assassination attempts against top officials following clashes in May and June in which 9 people died.

(Reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta; writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Janet Lawrence)