Sharif: escaped
Hanif: blew himself up
Posted on 04/30/2003 10:05:40 PM PDT by Pro-Bush
Sharif: escaped
Hanif: blew himself up
Police in Israel say they are hunting a British suicide bomber who fled after an attack on a bar in Tel Aviv.
The man - named as Omar Sharif, from Derby - escaped after failing to blow himself up, Israeli officials said.
His accomplice, who they said was another Briton, Asif Mohammed Hanif, died after detonating explosives, they added.
Three more people were killed and more than 50 injured in the attack at a beachside bar called Mike's Place.
The Israeli prime minister's office released a statement saying Mr Hanif had been the suicide bomber and that Mr Sharif had fled the scene after failing to detonate a second explosive device.
Hanif, 21, was said to have set off the explosives at the entrance to the pub after the security guard on duty at the door physically prevented him from entering.
Sharif, 27, was reported to have scuffled with bystanders at the bar before making off.
British passports alleged to belong to the two men were reported to have been found at the scene.
Other reports said British officials had not ruled out that the passports could be fakes and were trying to establish if the documents were authentic.
Israeli police were reported to have confirmed that two men with British passports entered Israel from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Israeli Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the hunt was on for Sharif over his alleged part in the double suicide bomb plot.
"We're definitely looking very seriously for him. We have a suicide bomber who has succeeded in escaping.
"We know that Omar Sharif was at the scene and attempted to blow himself up.
"I don't know if there was some kind of problem with his explosive device." he told Sky News.
Foreign Office officials pledged to cooperate with Israeli authorities to establish who the bombers are.
By all means, let his task be carried out, slowly and in private.
Asif Mohammed Hanif, 21, died when he detonated his explosives. His accomplice, Omar Khan Sharif, 27, who was born in Derby, escaped after his bomb failed to go off. He dropped it and managed to evade a security guard who tried to stop him.
Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, issued pictures of the title pages from the British passports found at the scene. They were shown on Israeli television as security forces launched a hunt for Sharif. The men, described by police as "British Muslims", had entered Israel from the Gaza Strip several days ago. One of the dead at the bar, called Mike's Place, was a French woman tourist.
A British embassy official in Tel Aviv said: "British diplomats are co-operating with the Israelis on the matter."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in close contact with the Israeli authorities but are not in a position to confirm anything."
Hamas, the Islamic militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place early yesterday only 20 yards from the US embassy.
Hamas said it acted with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Both have spearheaded attacks in the 31-month uprising for independence in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hanif and Sharif are not common names in the Palestinian territories. Israeli security sources said the two men could have come from Lebanon or Syria.
The security forces were focusing their investigation on whether the bombers belonged to al-Qa'eda or the guerrilla group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
At least half a dozen foreigners are in Israeli jails after being convicted as sleeper agents for Hezbollah, which hastened the end of Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000 and backs the Palestinian revolt.
Defence sources said there had been a number of cases in which terrorists used foreign passports to enter Israel.
It was reported that Richard Reid, the British shoe bomber who was captured aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Chicago in December 2001, had visited Israel on a scouting mission for al-Qa'eda.
News of the British connection coincided with the long-awaited publication of the White House "road map" for peace in the Middle East.
America promised to use the allied victory in Iraq as a springboard to a lasting settlement in the region.
Representatives of the "Quartet" of America, the United Nations, European Union and Russia handed copies of the document to Ariel Sharon, the Israeli leader, and Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday.
President George W Bush, who authorised publication, is due to address Americans from the returning aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off California tonight.
He said in a statement: "The road map represents a starting point toward achieving the vision of two states - a secure state of Israel and a viable, peaceful, democratic Palestine."
Tony Blair, who had encouraged Mr Bush to publish the road map as early as December and had been frustrated by his reluctance to do so until now, hailed it as a route to a "comprehensive settlement" that included "clear phases, time lines and benchmarks".
Under the plan, based on the long-standing concept of "land for peace", Palestinian terrorism would end and a new state be established by 2005 in return for Israel's handing back the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel has already asked for a dozen changes to be made to the plan and Mr Sharon has indicated that he is unwilling to make concessions until terrorism has ceased. Palestinians, who immediately published the document after it was given to Mr Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah by Trje Larsen, the UN envoy, want Israel to take immediate action.[End]
Silly me, I thought "dead man walking" was just a figure of speech.
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