Car bombing kills 17 on bus

MEGIDDO JUNCTION - A Palestinian car bomb exploded next to a passenger bus packed with civilians and soldiers in northern Israel yesterday, killing at least 17 people and wounding about 40.

The blast, which followed two days of talks between United States CIA director George Tenet and Palestinian and Israeli leaders, represented a serious setback to international efforts to end 20 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, in a telephone call to al-Manar television station in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for the attack near Mount Megiddo, or Armageddon, the Greek version of the site's Hebrew name.

The car blew up during the morning rush hour next to a stationary bus at a bus stop at the main Megiddo road junction. The bus was on its way from Tel Aviv to Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee.

A chunk of mangled metal was all that remained of the car-bomb and the bus. The explosion sprayed body parts and debris for hundreds of metres across a main highway.

Security sources said 16 people had been killed in the blast, a few kilometres from the "green line" border with the West Bank.

"I could not get near the bus, it was too hot. We pulled casualties away from the bus. Personnel came out of the nearby prison. We started to deal with the injured - there were many soldiers," said Ogen Drori, a 25-year-old medic.

The resurgence of Palestinian suicide bombings follows an Israeli military offensive in the West Bank that Israel said was intended to halt such attacks.

"This is a very serious terrorist attack. There are many casualties, including fatalities," regional police commander Dov Rutsky told Israel Radio.

"Initial indications at the scene are that the explosion occurred at the bus' flank. It was a car bomb."

Three bodies in olive-drab uniforms lay in front of the wreckage, surrounded by emergency crews and police sappers checking the area for more bombs.

It was not clear how many of the dead were soldiers and how many were civilians.

The blast was only a few kilometres from the West Bank city of Jenin, scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the recent Israeli military offensive.

Israel's security cabinet later convened for a meeting that had been scheduled before the blast.

It was likely to become a forum for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, due to hold White House talks with President George W. Bush next week, and senior ministers to discuss how to respond to the attack.

An official in Sharon's office called the bombing "another cowardly act of terror by the Palestinians, showing again that murder and the Palestinian Authority are indistinguishable".

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, blamed the attack on the "continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas".

Abdel-Rahman said Israeli invasions into Palestinian territories had made it impossible for the authority to carry out its security duties.

Tenet, the director of the CIA, has been leading the latest diplomatic drive to halt the violence, in which at least 1379 Palestinians and 486 Israelis had been killed before yesterday's attack.

He discussed reforms of the Palestinian security forces with Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Arafat proposed amalgamating nine key Palestinian Authority security services into three agencies.

"He [Tenet] came to evaluate the rebuilding of the security branches and the situation on the ground as part of American efforts to move in parallel on security and political tracks," said Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah.

"President Arafat is reviewing several plans for reorganising the security forces but nothing is confirmed yet."

The proposal, which one official said was likely to be approved "shortly", called for agencies responsible for presidential security, general security and internal security and intelligence to be set up. All three would report to Arafat.

Israel has made any resumption of peace negotiations with the Palestinians conditional on an end to suicide attacks and on wide-ranging reforms within Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Sharon, who met Tenet earlier, is expected to repeat the demands when he meets Bush, a month after a previous visit was cut short by a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv in which 15 Israelis died.

Sharon's meeting with Bush will follow the US President's talks on Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Camp David, with a possible Middle East summit on the horizon.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush would "determine if there's any additional actions the US needs to or should potentially take."

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

Related links