http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/25/wgoogle125.xmlBy Richard Holt
Last Updated: 1:08am GMT 29/10/2007
Google Earth is reportedly being used by militants to help plan attacks on Israel.
A group linked to the Palestinian Fatah movement apparently uses the online satellite maps to identify targets for rocket strikes.
Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade say the aerial pictures make it easier for them to search for potential targets, according to a report in The Guardian.
The newspaper was shown images of the Israeli town of Sdeerot by the militant group's commander in Gaza.
Khaled Jaabari said: "We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas."
Al-Aqsa is one of several groups firing rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Last month a rocket attack on a military base by the group Islamic Jihad wounded more than 50 soldiers.
This is not the first time Google Earth has been allegedly used for nefarious purposes.
Earlier this year The Daily Telegraph revealed that Shia terrorists in southern Iraq had been using the photographs to pinpoint British bases.
Google Earth images of Baghdad were being transferred from the internet to CDs and sold or passed among insurgents.
Shia militiamen said that the maps could be helpful in identifying how close a mortar-launching site needed to be in order to strike a Sunni community.
But the information has also been used to help identify trouble spots so that ordinary Iraqis can avoid a "battle area" or a mosque used by insurgents or militias prone to kill or kidnap.
Residents said that they use them to plot routes around danger spots, choose variations on their usual journey to work or even target areas inhabited by members of rival sects.
Google Earth offers satellite pictures of most of the Earth's surface.
The internet giant recently launched Google Sky, which allows users to zoom in on images from outer space.
Topic: Militants 'use Google Earth to attack Israel' (Read 1962 times)