Posted on 06/07/2002 5:37:09 PM PDT by knighthawk
JENIN: Hamza Samudi, 18, only learned to drive four days before he pulled up alongside an Israeli bus in a car-bomb and blew it up, killing 17 passengers and himself in a huge, fiery blast.
Samudi did not have to drive far to carry out his mission. It was 15km from his home on the outskirts of Jenin city to the Megiddo junction. In the early morning traffic on Thursday, he set off about 70kg of weapons-grade explosives that were packed into the red Renault van.
The force of the blast lifted the bus in the air and flipped it twice before it burst into flames, trapping many passengers. The bus was left a charred skeleton, while all that remained of the car was a piece of smouldering engine.
Samudi's relatives were as surprised to find out the quiet, religious young man had committed the bombing as they were when he turned up with the car a few days ago.
"I am very sad that my son died in this operation. If I knew he was going to carry it out I would have prevented him," his father, Arif, 94, said.
Many relatives of suicide bombers are reluctant to express grief in public, because the bombing attacks have wide supported among the people.
But sitting outside his home yesterday, the old man wiped tears away.
"I didn't want him to die. Who allows his son to die?" he asked.
The high school dropout's driving lessons consisted of a few pointers from his Islamic Jihad handlers on where to find the brake and the clutch, and how to use a gear lever, relatives said.
A neighbour of the family, Mustafa Estaiti, 50, said Arif had been surprised when his son bought a car "because he knew he couldn't drive".
Mr Estaiti said the boy told his impoverished family he wanted to use the car to buy and sell melons. Samudi's father gave him 10 shekels ($3.50) to buy fuel.
That night Samudi went to sleep early after praying and reading the Koran. Then in the middle of the night he slipped out on his first and last deadly mission.
Finaly some common sense.
Pallies that you would never think of are doing this. The only way to deal with this is to exact extreme penalties on the masses that support and condone this and kill all of them if that doesn't work.
The 18 year old maniac terrorist had a 94 year old father.Does anyone else see a problem with this picture? Just out of curiosity, I wonder how old the mother of this murderer is?.
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