Posted on 10/21/2002 2:11:59 PM PDT by RCW2001
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Car Bomb Blows Up Next to Israeli Bus in Suicide Attack; 16 Killed, Including 2 Bombers
The Associated Press
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| KARKUR JUNCTION, Israel Oct. 21 — A car pulled alongside a commuter bus and exploded Monday, trapping passengers in the flaming vehicle. Sixteen people were killed and 30 wounded in what police said was a suicide attack.
Two bombers were among the 16 dead, police said. The militant Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place in the afternoon rush hour in northern Israel. In a letter faxed to The Associated Press in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, Islamic Jihad said the bombing was in "retaliation for the series of massacres committed by the criminal enemy against our people." It cited recent Israeli military operations that have resulted in Palestinian civilian deaths in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel's army launched military strikes in an effort to prevent suicide attacks, which have now claimed the lives of 292 people not including the bombers in the past two years of violence. There have been 79 suicide attacks over that period. The powerful blast Monday happened several miles inland from the coastal town of Hadera, at Karkur Junction. The intense flames sent plumes of smoke into the sky and initially prevented police and rescue workers from approaching the bus. "The explosion was so strong that I fell to the floor," Michael Ithaki, a passenger who was sitting behind the bus driver, told Army Radio. "I looked back and quickly got off the bus, then it burst into flames." There were several soldiers aboard the bus, at least one of whom was killed. "We succeeded in getting one soldier off the bus," he added. "Two minutes after that more explosions started ... and we couldn't get on the bus because it was on fire. Some of the soldiers climbed out the windows and survived." The Hadera area has been a frequent target of Palestinian militants who have carried out dozens of bomb attacks in the Mideast in the past two years of violence. Although Hadera is on Israel's Mediterranean coast, it is only a few miles from the northern West Bank, where many of the suicide bombers have come from. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of the bombing: "The president condemns the most recent attack in Israel. It's another reminder of how it's so important for peace to be pursued and for terror to be stopped." Mark Sofer, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the attack was intended to undermine the visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who was scheduled to arrive in Israel on Wednesday. "Palestinian groups seized the opportunity to carry out yet another murderous attack inside of Israel aimed at innocent civilians, and one can only wonder and wonder again what do they want to achieve except for death, death and more death of innocent people." Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking at his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said: "You know that the Palestinian leadership position is against such attacks that target civilians, Israelis or Palestinians." Israel has said it holds Arafat ultimately responsible, arguing that his security forces have not made a serious attempt to prevent attacks. The Palestinians say Israel's devastating military strikes have rendered their security forces impotent against the militants. Israel responded to the last major bomb attack in September with a 10-day siege of Arafat in which its tanks destroyed much of what was left of his Ramallah compound and such attacks always revive talk among hardline Cabinet ministers of expelling the Palestinian leader. The explosions-laden car apparently came from the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank, police commander Yaakov Borofsky told Israeli Radio. Israel has been taking extraordinary steps in an attempt to prevent attacks including imposing curfews on hundreds of thousands in the West Bank's Palestinian cities but even these measures proved insufficient to stop Monday's bombing. Ron Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said security officers in cars are now trailing buses, looking out for potential car bombs. "From the first reports reaching me, there was such a (security) vehicle tens of meters (yards) from the car bomb," he said. A rescue worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was also an armed guard on the bus, but there was nothing he could do. The bus was headed to Tel Aviv from Kiryat Shemona, in the far north of Israel near the Lebanese border. Buses traveling to or from Hadera to cities and towns inland in northern Israel have been attacked numerous times. And a suicide bomber from Islamic Jihad pulled his car next to a bus on June 5 and detonated his explosives, killing 16 passengers near Meggido, about 15 miles northeast of Hadera. Earlier Monday, in the West Bank, defiant Israeli settlers tried to rebuild an illegal West Bank outpost called Havat Gilad that security forces had torn down a day earlier, and the two sides appeared headed for another round of confrontation. |
When the reported death counts during the Blitz, did they include the Nazi pilots shot down by the RAF?
ML/NJ
I'm surprised the BBC has any access to Israel at all. And if Americans would know how bad the BBC World Service is, I'd be surprised that it had access to the US also. I was in Israel during Summer 2001 and the only choices for English speaking visitors was the BBC-World and CNN-Europe. The anti-Bush, anti-American presentation was unbelieveable, and of course Israel was the cause of the almost daily murders within its own territory.
ML/NJ
I know, I know. I heard about it a few minutes ago on my car radio. When will this end? When one side no longer exists? I hate to think like that, but I am beginning to think it may very well come down to that.
(Leviticus 19:16)
bump!!!!
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