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Suicide attack ahead of Powell visit

By Kesava Menon

Manama (Bahrain) April 10. At least eight persons were killed and more than a dozen injured in a suicide attack on a bus near the Israeli city of Haifa. It was the second major attack against civilians since the army launched its massive military operation in the West Bank on March 29 to halt such attacks.

In response, Israel called off any further withdrawals from West Bank towns because the anti-terror operation there was not yet complete. The bus, which was travelling towards Jerusalem, blew up at Yagur Junction, about 10 km south of the northern port city. The attack occurred after the Israel army had announced a successful end to its operations in Jenin. Although the Israeli Government predictably blamed the Palestinian Authority and its President, Yasser Arafat, for the Haifa atrocity (despite Mr. Arafat's condemnation of the attack), the incident appeared to highlight the futility of the Israeli operations.

According to initial reports, the bomber got on to the bus at a junction outside Haifa and immediately blew himself up. The blast was said to have been so powerful that it lifted the bus a few meters into the air and blew some passing cars off the road. People in vehicles behind saw debris from the bus and body parts flying through the air. Israeli spokesmen said today's attack underlined the necessity of the military operations to "root out the infrastructure of terrorism". Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Office clarified yesterday that the Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, had not described the developments in Jenin as a massacre. He had said the fighting there had been so fierce that the Palestinians were bound to describe it as a "massacre" even though the Israeli army had done its best to minimise civilian casualties.

Around 150 Palestinian fighters and 14 Israeli soldiers are believed to have been killed in the ferocious fighting on the streets of the Jenin refugee camp. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush in Jenin.

The fighting in Jenin was reported to have ended with the surrender of about 250 Palestinian fighters. The Palestinian Authority claimed that the men surrendered after they had run out of ammunition. The Israeli military displayed video footage of the arms captured in the Jenin operation. While the footage was intended to highlight what the army called the infrastructure of terror, the arms displayed seemed no different from those that had been issued to the Palestinian security services for their regular duties. Some of the weapons also looked crude and locally made.

Israeli spokesmen described today's attack in Haifa as the Palestinian Authority's "welcome gift" to the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who is scheduled to arrive in Israel tomorrow evening. Another Israeli official, described only as a close aide to the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said Gen. Powell's decision to meet Mr. Arafat was a serious mistake.

But in Cairo yesterday, Gen. Powell was quoted as saying that the Israeli military operations were harming the interests of Israel itself, of the U.S. and of the international community.

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