Posted on 06/18/2002 3:52:43 AM PDT by kattracks
JERUSALEM, Jun 18, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A Palestinian man detonated nail-studded explosives on a Jerusalem bus crowded with high school students and office workers Tuesday, killing himself and 19 passengers in the city's deadliest suicide attack in six years. Forty people were wounded.
The blast tore through the bus just before 8 a.m., sending bodies flying through windows and peeling off the roof and sides. Rescue workers later lined up the dead on a sidewalk and covered them with black plastic bags.
The explosion went off near a high school, and many of the passengers were students. Education Minister Limor Livnat said seven students were among the dead and wounded.
The attack came as President Bush prepared to make a major Mideast policy statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rushed to the scene and vowed to fight Palestinian terror groups, then convened security chiefs for emergency consultations. Tough Israeli retaliation was expected. Earlier this month, Israeli troops blew up buildings in Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah in response to a suicide attack that killed 17 Israelis.
The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility and identified the assailant as Mohammed al-Ghoul, 22, from the Al Faraa refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus. The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack. In 21 months of fighting, Palestinian extremists have carried out 70 suicide bombing.
Tuesday's explosion went off as the bus waited at a crowded intersection in southern Jerusalem. Shlomi Kalderon, 32, had just dropped off his children at kindergarten and was two cars behind the bus at the time of the blast.
"All the pieces went flying up into the air," Kalderon said from a Jerusalem hospital where he was being treated for a whistling in his ears. "People from the cars behind me came running up to the bus and started pulling people out of the windows. They didn't save many. ... I saw a head next to me after the blast."
A tent was set up at the scene where body parts would be identified. One woman was screaming at volunteers who were collecting remains at the scene, "Where is my sister? Where is my sister?"
Police said 20 people, including the bomber, were killed in the first suicide bombing in Jerusalem since April 12. It was the deadliest attack in the city since Feb. 25, 1996, when 26 people were killed in a bus explosion. Jerusalem has been hardest hit by the current wave of Palestinian suicide attacks.
A visibly angry Sharon made an unusual visit to the scene 90 minutes after the blast. He inspected the wreckage and then walked slowly past the row of bodies on the sidewalk.
"This terrible thing that we see is a continuation of Palestinian terrorism, and against that terrorism we have to fight and struggle - and that is what we will do," Sharon said, without saying what sort of response might be expected.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack and said in a statement that it would do "everything in its power to find and stop anyone attempting to carry out operations."
Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib said the Palestinians expected Israel's response would be directed at Arafat, whose headquarters in Ramallah have been under siege off and on since December.
The suicide attack came as Bush was preparing to outline his vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and the steps needed to get there. Bush has repeatedly criticized Arafat, saying the Palestinian leader has not done enough to prevent terror attacks in Israel.
Bush was said to be considering backing a provisional Palestinian state on some West Bank and Gaza land. Sharon, who objects to the idea, questioned what sort of state the Palestinians would create.
"The terrible sights we have seen here are stronger than any words," Sharon said. "It is interesting to know what kind of Palestinian state they mean. What Palestinian state?"
The blast went off near the Patt intersection in southern Jerusalem, about 150 yards from the Ort Spanian high school, as staff and students were saying morning prayers.
Phones were ringing nonstop at the school secretary's office, as worried parents called. Eliahu Tsur, a teacher, said between answering phones that "there's a lot of hysteria." Tsur said that "we're trying to calm the parents and stay calm ourselves."
Jerusalem police had been on high alert since Monday after receiving warnings that a suicide bomber was trying to carry out an attack in Jerusalem. Acting on specific intelligence information, police set up checkpoints throughout the city.
Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said five Palestinian suicide bombers were trying simultaneously to infiltrate Israel to carry out attacks.
One bomber blew himself up near an Israeli border police patrol Monday, killing himself but causing no other injuries.
By STEVE WEIZMAN Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
If there is any doubt about the moral repugnancy of the Bush Administration, this should remove it. Bush has acted as Arafat's protector. Every time Bush capitulates to Arab pressure more Israelis die.
Because Israel has a divided government with dove Shimon Peres as foreign minister.
Not true.
That may work - then again - it could have the effect of stirring up a hornet's nest and make things worse.
The Israelis love life. The Palestinians love to hate. The Israelis can exist very nicely without the Palestinians. But the Palestinians cannot exist without the Israelis. WIthout them, they have nothing to hate and no purpose for living.
Not true. The Jews arose from the ashes of the Holocaust to smite their enemies and they will do so again.
But IMHO this will not end until the Arabs raise the stakes and the nukes start flying.
BUMP
On supposes the US, with it's vast wealth and need to be seen as even handed (the oil flop), would pay the fare to resettle these people in the Jordanian desert.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.