Suicide attack kills 16 in Israel

By Jack Katzenell

Associated Press

MEGIDDO, Israel – An Islamic suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives alongside an Israeli bus Wednesday and then ignited a huge fireball that flipped the bus over twice. Sixteen passengers – 13 of them soldiers – were killed and dozens wounded in the attack on the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War.

In a first response, Israel sent two dozen tanks into the West Bank town of Jenin, the assailant’s hometown. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the bombing. Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority condemned the attack.

Because of the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delayed his scheduled departure for the United States, canceling weekend meetings in New York. He now is to leave Saturday night for talks in Washington Monday with President Bush, Sharon’s office said in a statement.

In a harsh statement, the White House condemned the attack and said it raised questions anew about Arafat’s relevance to the Middle East peace process.

“In the president’s eyes, Yasser Arafat has never played a role of someone who can be trusted or effective,” presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Passengers were hurled onto the pavement as the bus tumbled; others, including a man and woman embracing in their final moments, died trapped in the burning vehicle.

“I felt the bus leap and then turn over,” said driver Mickey Harel, who has survived three previous attacks in the past seven months. “I saw soldiers thrown around the front of the bus.”

For the first time, the Palestinian Authority – while condemning the suicide assault – said it had no advance knowledge or any ties to the attack. Israel said Arafat was responsible and was presiding over a coalition of terror. Palestinian security officials said they were under orders to arrest Islamic Jihad members.

“Following this attack, there will be no sanctuary and no safe haven for any terrorist,” said Raanan Gissin, a Sharon adviser.

Wednesday’s attack marked a departure from recent suicide attacks in that the assailant used a moving car capable of carrying large amounts of explosives, said Reuven Paz, an Israeli counterterrorism expert. Until now, suicide attacks largely have involved individuals on foot and wearing less-powerful explosives belts.

Israeli officials said Palestinian militant groups are trying to carry out a so-called mega attack with large numbers of casualties.

The army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, said Wednesday that in the March 27 Park Hotel bombing that killed 29 Israelis, terrorists planned to release lethal cyanide gas but were held back by technical difficulties. He said no cyanide was present at the scene: “We are talking about an intention.”

The blast in the coastal town of Netanya triggered Israel’s six-week military offensive against Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

Last month, bombers detonated a device under a tank truck as it was refueling at Israel’s largest fuel depot in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The explosion burned the truck’s cabin, but did not spread to other vehicles or the huge fuel containers.

Also, Israeli officials said recently the thwarted plans to park an explosives-laden truck under twin high-rise buildings in Tel Aviv.

Bombers used a car in 1994 but it was detonated seconds after pulling alongside a parked bus in the central Israeli town of Afula. In Wednesday’s attack, both vehicles were moving.

Bombers with ties to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist al-Qaida network used a car explosion last month against a bus carrying French engineers in Pakistan, killing 11 of them.

After Wednesday’s attack, Sharon convened his security cabinet. Education Minister Limor Livnat, who participated in the consultations, said no decision was made on a further response.

Several ministers have demanded that Israel expel Arafat. Israeli President Moshe Katsav demanded Wednesday that the international community cut off all ties with Arafat.

The attack on the bus was made a day after CIA chief George Tenet met Arafat to press him to carry out reforms that would make his unwieldy security apparatus more effective in preventing terror attacks. Arafat presented a reform plan, but Israeli media reports said Tenet considered it insufficient.

The Bush administration, meanwhile, was mapping plans for a Middle East peace conference next month in Turkey. A well-placed U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the conference would be held among foreign ministers from the Middle East and Europe. Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were to meet in Washington on Friday, in advance of the Sharon-Bush session Monday.

The leader of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Abdullah Shami, said Wednesday’s attack is “part of our resistance, a response to the crimes of the Israeli aggression.”

In Damascus, Syria, another Islamic Jihad leader, Ramadan Shalah, said the bombing was meant to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem – areas the Palestinians claim for a future state.

The explosion went off at 7:20 a.m. just outside Megiddo Prison in the northern Israeli town of the same name. Many Palestinian security prisoners are being held at the prison and broke into cheers at the sound of the explosion, police said. In Hebrew Megiddo means Armageddon – the scene of the final battle between good and evil in the end of days, according to the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.

Sharon Levinger, a young soldier, said he was in the front of the bus at the time of the explosion. “In an eye-blink, I saw a car passing and then there was an explosion. The bus turned over at least twice,” Levinger said. “I was right by the door and I managed to kick it open and get out.”

Andre, a soldier guarding Megiddo Prison, said he saw the bus fly through the air. “It lit up instantly,” he told Army Radio. “People were escaping from it like ants. … I saw a female soldier who was sitting on the edge of the road and couldn’t move. Everyone was screaming at her to get away from the bus, and then a soldier picked her up and as she turned around we saw that her face was completely bloody and she couldn’t see, and that’s why she hadn’t moved.”

Body parts and the personal belongings of passengers were scattered well away from the bus. Rescue workers in white overalls collected the remains.

The bus had left from Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast, and was making several stops in northern Israel. The route passes a number of mostly Arab towns, and both Arabs and Jews were believed to be among the 53 people on the bus, authorities said.

Paramedics said at least 38 people were hurt, 10 seriously. Some of those injured were in nearby cars. The army said 13 of the dead were soldiers, traveling to bases in the West Bank.

The town of Jenin, where Islamic Jihad said the bomber lived, is about 10 miles east of Megiddo junction. The militant group said it was withholding the attacker’s name out of fears Israel would retaliate against his family. However, an Islamic Jihad member who saw the assailant’s “martyr poster” that was about to be distributed, said he appeared to be 18 or 19 years old.