Palestinian shepherd found dead in West Bank

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian shepherd was found shot dead in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of killing him.

"The body of a Bedouin youth was found by one of his family members. (Israeli) police have opened an investigation after a forensic examination showed he had been shot," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

He was identified as Yahya Atta Bani Menna, 18, from the village of Aqraba, near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Shepherds from the village said there had been a white car in the area belonging to settlers and they had heard the sound of gunfire, but did not see him being shot, members of his family told Reuters.

Unidentified witnesses quoted by the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam said two settlers armed with automatic rifles followed the teenager in their car and then fired about 20 bullets into him in the daylight incident on Saturday.

"We are examining the bullets and type of gun, trying to find out who was behind (the shooting). Everything is open at the moment," Rosenfeld said.

A Palestinian Authority official in the local governor's office said: "We put the responsibility for the killing on Jewish settlers."

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused inhabitants of the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, in the Nablus area, of mounting a "pogrom" on a nearby Palestinian village after a Jewish child was wounded in a stabbing. Three Palestinians were shot and wounded in the setters' attack.

(Reporting by Atef Saad and Ari Rabinovitch, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Charles Dick)