US investigators stoned at Gaza bomb scene

Jabalya, Gaza Strip - Palestinian stone throwers on Wednesday forced American officials to suspend an investigation of a bomb attack on a United States embassy convoy that killed three Americans in the Gaza Strip.

The investigators filmed the wreckage before being driven away by a hail of stones from youths from the Jabalya refugee camp, a Islamic militant stronghold. The youths shouted "Allah Akbar" (God is greatest).

Palestinian police officers at the scene fired into the air with automatic weapons to keep the youths from getting too close.

Israeli helicopters hovered as the US investigators arrived, and Israeli tanks located about half a kilometre from the scene of the bombing fired sporadically at the ground and into the air in an apparent attempt to secure the area.

Earlier reports by residents that Israeli tanks had arrived at the scene were incorrect. Soldiers fired from machine guns nearby earlier after an armoured jeep was damaged by a landmine. Three soldiers were slightly wounded in that attack.

In Ramallah, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the attack, the first against Americans during a three-year-old uprising against Israel, as "an ugly crime" and said he had ordered an inquiry, according to the official news agency Wafa.

Both the Islamic Jihad and Hamas militant groups spearheading the revolt for independence, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) faction, denied involvement.

"We view it as inappropriate to target Europeans, Americans or any nationality other than the occupation forces," senior Islamic Jihad official Nafez Azzam told Reuters, referring to Israel and its hold on the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas, which along with Islamic Jihad has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide-bombing campaigns during the uprising, similarly distanced itself from the attack.

"Hamas' position is not to expand its struggle, and Hamas' enemy is only the enemy of the Palestinian people, which is the Israeli occupation," Adnan Asfour, a Hamas political leader in the West Bank, said.

Rabah Muhana, a senior member of the PFLP, an armed offshoot of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation, said it opposed attacks on Americans or other nationalities in principle.

"If we want to measure the attack based on the criteria of gain and loss, then it would be a wrongful act," he said.

"But the unjust, unlimited and illogical American support for Israel has fuelled anti-American feelings throughout the world, including among the Palestinians.

"Therefore, the attack could fall into this category (of Palestinian anger). It could represent an angry act against US support for Israel."

At least 4 Americans killed in Gaza blast

www.chinaview.cn 2003-10-15 02:46:53

A US investigator (C, in red) collects evidence at a blast site in the Gaza Strip Oct. 15, 2003. At least four people, including three US diplomats, were killed on Wednesday when a US diplomatic convoy hit a roadside bomb near the village of Beit Hanon in the northern Gaza Strip. (Xinhua Photo)

Palestinians protest against US investigators during a clash at a blast site in the northern Gaza Strip Oct. 15, 2003. Angry Palestinians threw stones at US investigators and Palestinian officers at the site. The blast killed at least four people including three United States diplomats. (Xinhua Photo)

People evade stones during a clash at a blast site in the northern Gaza Strip Oct. 15, 2003. Angry Palestinians threw stones at US investigators and Palestinian officers at the site. (Xinhua Photo)

Palestinian security officer is wounded during a clash at a blast site in the northern Gaza Strip Oct. 15, 2003.(Xinhua Photo)

GAZA, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 4 people, among them three US diplomats, were killed Wednesday when a US diplomatic convoy hit a roadside bomb near the northern Gaza Strip village of Beit Hanon,Palestinian eyewitnesses and medical sources said.

@@The witnesses said that they heard a huge explosion as the US convoy of cars and CIA Security bodyguards, who was accompanying US Middle East envoy John Wolf, was passing a crossroad near a gas station between the northern Gaza Strip villages of Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahya.

@@Medical sources said that four Americans, members of the CIA,were killed in the explosion, and another was wounded, adding that Wolf was injured in the blast and taken to the hospital.

The witnesses said that they saw two cars turning into pieces and flying in the air, and dust, flames of fire and black smoke was coming out of the two cars. A third car in the area turned around.

They said that dozens of people rushed to the spot where the explosion took place, trying to rescue survivals, while Palestinian ambulances, security forces, police and firefighters arrived in thearea.

@@the Islamic resistance movement Hamas leader in the West Bank,Adnan Asfour, denied that his movement is involved in the attack,adding that Hamas has been always rejecting to expand or enlarge the cycle of conflict with the Israelis.

@@"Our strategy was always clear that we reject to target anybody except the Zionist occupation, the first and the last enemy. This is the strict stance of Hamas," said Asfour.

@@A Palestinian security official who asked not to be identified said that the roadside bomb was apparently planted in the area totarget the convoy of US diplomats.

@@US diplomatic convoys usually cross Erez Crossing on thenorthern borders between Gaza Strip and Israel every day, where they meet different political and social Palestinian figures.

The official said that John Wolf was on his way to meet with former Palestinian Minister of Security Affairs Mohamed Dahlan andother Palestinian figures as part of his mission to help the Israelis and the Palestinians end their ongoing conflict and resume peace talks.

@@However, the Palestinian security official said that the Palestinian security forces are also studying the possibility that it could be a roadside bomb planted in the area against the Israeli army tanks and armored vehicles which carry out ground military incursions into that area.

@@The witnesses said that the area where the blast took place is aplace that usually Israeli army tanks reach to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets from the area at southern Israel.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) had strongly condemned the blast and said that the attack is harming the highest interests of the Palestinian people.

@@Saeb Erekat, a minister in Ahmed Qurei's government, called for forming an urgent US-Palestinian investigation committee to look into the circumstances of the explosion.

@@Palestinian witnesses in the area said that the attack on the US diplomatic convoy was a natural reaction to the US veto against a UN resolution to ask Israel for stopping building the security separation fence in the West Bank. Enditem

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