RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian security forces have for the first time arrested a suspected cell of Al-Qaeda sympathisers in the occupied West Bank, a senior officer said on Wednesday. Brigadier General Ibrahim Ramadan said the six young men arrested near the northern West Bank town of Jenin last week were carrying out military training but had not yet selected any targets to attack. They considered themselves part of Al-Qaeda but did not have any contacts with Al-Qaeda leaders abroad, he said, announcing the arrests on Wednesday. They all had shaved heads and long beards, and they consider both Fatah and Hamas to be infidels, he added, referring to the secular movement of Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas and the Hamas ruling Gaza. Ramadan denied that Israeli security forces were involved in the arrests, which he said followed an investigation into a cache of homemade explosives found in the countryside outside Jenin. Israel has previously arrested Palestinians it accused of planning to carry out attacks on behalf of Osama bin Ladens jihadist network. Despite Al-Qaedas vocal support for the Palestinian struggle, it has never developed a significant presence in the occupied territories. However, hardline Islamist groups have emerged in the Gaza Strip in recent years, and in August 2009 Hamas-led security forces clashed with a group calling for the implementation of Islamic law in the impoverished territory. More than 20 people were killed and 120 wounded in the clashes in the southern border town of Rafah, including the leader of the group, a charismatic preacher named Abdul Latif Musa. Also on Wednesday, the Hamas-run government said it had arrested a senior leader of a radical group who was said to have escaped from prison late last year. Ihab al-Ghussein, a spokesman for the Hamas-run interior ministry, said Mahmud Talib was arrested in connection with a number of crimes, including a rash of recent explosions targeting internet cafes. In December, extremist groups issued a statement claiming that Talib had escaped from a Hamas-run detention centre, but Hamas authorities never confirmed the report.