***PHOTOS*** Israel bus terror attack

Yahoo! ^ | June 5, 2002 | Reuters

[Alouette]

An Israeli security officer walks past the remains of a passenger bus destroyed by a huge bomb blast killing at least 16 people and wounding over 40 at a busy road junction in Northern Israel on June 5. REUTERS/Nir Elias

Workers remove bodies from the scene of a passenger bus bombing in Megiddo Junction in northern Israel. A Palestinian suicide attacker exploded a powerful car bomb next to an Israeli bus on Wednesday, igniting an inferno and killing at least 16 people in a major setback to international peace efforts. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

An Israeli forensic volunteer covers a soldier's body, at the scene where a bus was hit at the site of a deadly car bomb at Megiddo Junction in northern Israel Wednesday June 5, 2002. An Islamic militant ignited a massive fireball when he blew himself up in a car packed with explosives alongside a crowded Israeli bus Wednesday. At least 17 passengers were killed and dozens wounded in the suicide attack marking the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war. (AP Photo/ Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi)

Rescue and forensics experts work beside covered bodies after a Palestinian suicide attacker exploded a powerful car bomb next to an Israeli bus on June 5, 2002, igniting an inferno and killing at least 16 people in a major setback to international peace efforts. The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

Rescue workers cover bodies after a Palestinian suicide attacker exploded a powerful car bomb next to an Israeli bus on June 5, 2002, igniting an inferno and killing at least 16 people in a major setback to international peace efforts. The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

Rescue workers cover bodies after a Palestinian suicide attacker exploded a powerful car bomb next to an Israeli bus on June 5, 2002, igniting an inferno and killing at least 16 people in a major setback to international peace efforts. The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

Rescue workers inspect the remains of a passenger bus in northern Israel after a car-bomb explosion that killed at least 16 people. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

An Israeli police officer is seen at the scene where a bus was hit at the site of a deadly car bombing at Megiddo Junction in northern Israel Wednesday June 5, 2002. An Islamic militant ignited a massive fireball when he blew himself up in a car packed with explosives alongside a crowded Israeli bus Wednesday. At least 17 people were killed and more than 45 injured, police and rescue workers said in the suicide attack marking the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war. (AP Photo/ Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi)

]

Israeli forensic volunteers carry a stretcher away from the scene, where a bus was hit at the site of a deadly car bomb at Megiddo Junction in northern Israel Wednesday June 5, 2002. An Islamic militant ignited a massive fireball when he blew himself up in a car packed with explosives alongside a crowded Israeli bus Wednesday. At least 17 passengers were killed and dozens wounded in the suicide attack marking the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war. (AP Photo/ Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi)

An Israeli rescue worker looks at the remains of a civilian car which earlier blew up along side a passenger bus (in background), killing at least 16 people and wounding over 40 at a busy road junction near the ruins of Megiddo June 5, 2002. The attack marked a change in tactics by militant groups, whose usual method in the past has been to send suicide bombers with less powerful explosive belts strapped to their own bodies. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

Rescue workers inspect the remains of a passenger bus in Megido Junction in northern Israel, after a car packed with explosives blew up alongside the bus carrying civilians and soldiers, June 5, 2002. The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed at least 15 people, Hizbollah's al-Manar TV station said. (Havakuk Levison/Reuters)

The remains of a passenger bus are seen in Megido Junction in northern Israel, after a car packed with explosives blew up alongside the bus carrying civilians and soldiers, June 5, 2002. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

Forensics workers inspect the remains of a passenger bus in Megido Junction in northern Israel, after a car packed with explosives blew up alongside the bus carrying civilians and soldiers, June 5, 2002. REUTERS/Havakuk Levison

[TomGuy]

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

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Where's Chelsea?

[Robert Drobot]

"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.

[RaceBannon]

I never heard that from Einstein, but at AA meetings!

[RnMomof7]

This must stop now.There is no defense that the world community should accept for this. They are murderous heathans

[Still Using Air]

"The bus driver, Mikki Har'el, said it was almost full when he slowed down..."
I think the driver is alive from this line..

[phasma proeliator]

[Momaw Nadon]

The bus driver survived and managed to rescue a few people.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Then it has to be Mary.

[Nachum]

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.

[swarthyguy]

Saudi Money? :)

[Musket]

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.

[Optimist]

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).

[Optimist]

said it carried out the bombing to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War

OK, now its Israels's turn!

[GrandMoM]

...IMHO looks like the face of Jesus crying!!!!!!!

[Texas Mom]

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.

[Zionist Conspirator]

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!

[monkeyshine]

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.

[finnman69]

Funny how the pro terrroist DUmmies have locked their thread on the attack as they don't like seeing people condemn the attacks.

[monkeyshine]

"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.