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***PHOTOS*** Israel bus terror attack
Yahoo! ^
| June 5, 2002
| Reuters
Posted on 06/05/2002 7:17:04 AM PDT by Alouette
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To: Alouette
Driver of Bombed Bus Survives Fourth Attack
By Jack Katzenell Associated Press Writer The Associated Press
Published: Jun 5, 2002
MEGIDDO, Israel (AP) - Bus driver Micky Harel's fourth brush with death came in a massive fireball from an explosives-packed car that raced up beside bus No. 830 on his Wednesday morning route.
The blast rolled the bus twice like a kicked soda can, engulfed it in flames and hurled passengers onto the highway. The attack, carried out by an Islamic militant, killed at least 16 Israelis and wounded 38.
Harel, who said he survived three other bombing and shooting attacks along the same route in northern Israel, escaped with a few cuts and bruises.
The driver managed to drag some passengers to safety. Then the flames grew. "I was in despair because I couldn't get any more of them out," he said.
The bus route passes Arab towns, and it's likely some of the passengers were Arab citizens. Officials said it was difficult to count and identify the dead because bodies were so badly shredded and burned and the bus was incinerated down to its frames.
"It's a tough sight," said a regional police chief, Yaakov Borovsky.
The militant Islamic Jihad group said it carried out the bombing to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War.
The bus set out from Tel Aviv at 5:50 a.m. and was headed for Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee.
The trip ended in a scene of destruction in Megiddo, Hebrew for "Armageddon" - the place where the New Testament book of Revelation depicts a final battle between good and evil at the End of Days.
On Wednesday, like he does each day, Harel picked up many soldiers from bus stops in the coastal cities of Netanya, Hadera and Karkur and the Camp 80 army base. He's gotten to know many of them.
Some of them slipped on headphones and dozed off.
Soldier Sharon Levinger got on, and a friend grabbed two seats for them in the first row and asked Levinger to wake him up when they arrived at their base.
On highway 66, as they neared the Megiddo Prison, Levinger caught a quick glimpse of a car alongside the bus. A moment later the blast ripped through the cabin, he recalled from a hospital bed.
The bus rolled twice and careened into the patch of roadside weeds and grass in front of the prison. Harel gripped the steering wheel even as the large windshield shattered into a spray of glass.
For him, it was a familiar sense of panic. He had survived three other attacks in the past 20 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
In October, while Harel was on a break from driving bus No. 842, a Palestinian gunmen dressed as an Israeli soldier pumped bullets into the bus in the northern town of Afula, killing three bystanders.
A month later, Harel said he drove just yards behind a bus blown apart by a suicide bomber near the Arab town of Umm el-Fahm. That attack killed three passengers.
Last month, at a highway intersection, as traffic lights turned green, a suicide bomber blew up on the side of the road as Harel was driving past. Only the bomber was killed.
Aware of the dangers, Harel sometimes asks passengers to open their jackets. He checks bags going into the cargo compartment of the bus.
In Wednesday's attack, his scorched bus was tossed onto a highway embankment just outside the barbed wire fence of the prison. Inmates, many of them Palestinian security prisoners, cheered when they heard the explosion, police said. Guards in nearby watchtowers saw the bus tumble and crash.
"It lit up instantly," a guard named Andre told Army Radio. "People were fleeing from it like ants." He saw a female soldier sitting on the road, her face covered in blood, apparently unable to see to move. Another soldier picked her up.
In the bus' front seat, Levinger was able to kick the door open and escape.
An advertisement was blown off the back of the bus. It read: "To bus drivers, security forces and rescue teams - the heart says thank you."
The car driven by the bomber disintegrated, leaving behind just a bit of the smoldering engine. Witnesses said some passengers were trapped alive in the burning bus, among them a man and a woman who burned to death in each other's arms.
AP-ES-06-05-02 0707EDT
61
posted on
06/05/2002 8:15:43 AM PDT
by
TomGuy
To: phasma proeliator
Where's Chelsea?
To: Optimist
"time for Israel to say "either your with us or against us" Unlike our two-faced campaign promise-breaking all mouth-no balls president, if Israel says it, you can bank on it.
To: Stat-boy
I never heard that from Einstein, but at AA meetings!
To: Alouette
This must stop now.There is no defense that the world community should accept for this. They are murderous heathans
65
posted on
06/05/2002 8:21:55 AM PDT
by
RnMomof7
To: RedBloodedAmerican
"The bus driver, Mikki Har'el, said it was almost full when he slowed down..."
I think the driver is alive from this line..
To: RedBloodedAmerican
To: RedBloodedAmerican
The bus driver survived and managed to rescue a few people.
To: Momaw Nadon
Then it has to be Mary.
To: stuck_in_new_orleans
No need to make the Arabs Israel's "bitch".
There is an answer that no one wishes to say loudly, but it is the answer never the less. Israel must annex all of the land under its control, destroy all Arab nationalism, execute all murderers, and deport all who will not submit to Israeli sovereignty.
70
posted on
06/05/2002 8:39:23 AM PDT
by
Nachum
To: SgtSki
Saudi Money? :)
To: Texas Mom
I was wondering. Does Israel return the bodies ( or what's left of them) of the bombers to their families for burial?If there's anything left I hope it goes to the dump where it belongs.
72
posted on
06/05/2002 8:51:45 AM PDT
by
Musket
To: Dallas
The attack was launched the morning after CIA Director George Tenet finished up talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and left the country. The United States is seeking a reform in the Palestinian Authority, including changes in its security services. So, what would the US response be if Tenet had been on the bus? Ooops. Never mind. The Palestinians are friends of the US (/sarcasm).
73
posted on
06/05/2002 8:55:51 AM PDT
by
Optimist
To: TomGuy
said it carried out the bombing to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War OK, now its Israels's turn!
74
posted on
06/05/2002 9:06:00 AM PDT
by
Optimist
To: abner
...IMHO looks like the face of Jesus crying!!!!!!!
75
posted on
06/05/2002 9:10:09 AM PDT
by
GrandMoM
To: Musket
If there's anything left I hope it goes to the dump where it belongs. That would be my recommendation as well.. I don't know why the question crossed my mind but it did.
To: Alouette
There's only one thing to say:
HaShem yiqqom 'et damam!To see what "true conservatives" think about these murdering Communist scum, go to the forum at originaldissent.com. Those accursed `aku"m think their "honorary aryan" friends are avenging Rhodesia and South Africa!
BTW, you know how these Nazis are always denying what they are on FR? Go to their messageboard and read where they admit and celebrate it! And every time they do, they damn themselves as liars for denying it here.
"Aryan" `Amaleqite scum!
To: Alouette
killing at least 16 people in a major setback to international peace efforts. Yeah, that's what it is. Murdering 16 people and injuring a score more is a "major setback".
It's a moral outrage, an indignity, a savage inhumane inhuman act by a godless F*** from a depraved, worthless society.
The society is depraved and worthless because there appears to be not one man with the courage of moral conviction to stand up to this savagery. I don't care if the Palestinians are scattered to the ends of the earth.
To: Alouette
Funny how the pro terrroist DUmmies have locked their thread on the attack as they don't like seeing people condemn the attacks.
To: SJackson
"if there are any more suicide bombings then this time the United States will not intervene and Sharon will have a free hand," This would have to be the greenest light there ever were. Made in public even.
Even if Tenent said this after this recent attack, even if this attack wasn't a "suicide bomb", it's still a green light. What could he possibly say? "Mr. Sharon, the last attack that murdered 16 people didn't count. We need more people to die first?"
If they want a Palestinian state, give them Gaza. Israel should run them off the West Bank for good.
The "refugees" are just that.. "refugees". By definition they don't have a home. They need to find one. And it obviously shouldn't be anywhere near Jews.
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