The Hindu : Car bomb attack on disco foiled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 25, 2002

International

International

Car bomb attack on disco foiled

Jerusalem May 24. A suicide bomber apparently blew himself up early today in southern Tel Aviv after being fired on by security guards outside a discotheque, Israel Radio reported.

The explosion occurred near the entrance to the disco and a nightclub, after the two guards identified a young male driver and opened fire at him. The man tried to take cover behind a car and was killed instantly when the explosives he carried went off.

Israel Radio said two bystanders suffered minor injuries and several patrons of the two establishments had to be treated for shock.

At the explosion site, the Tel Aviv Police Chief, Yossef Sedbon, said that the bomber aroused suspicion by driving into the entrance of the club and was met immediately with gunfire. ``The guard opened fire at the car approaching him while pushing people who stood next to him into the doorway,'' Mr. Sedbon said. ``The car exploded, and several more home-made explosive devices were scattered all over the place.''

A police bomb squad was defusing the undetonated devices, made of water pipes filled with explosives. The explosion took place about 1:30 a.m. local time in a commercial district that is sparsely visited at night except for some entertainment establishments.

Three weeks ago, a suicide bomber managed to enter another club in an industrial zone south of Tel Aviv, killing 15 civilians.

Telegraph reports from Bethlehem:

The Israeli army is rushing to put barbed wire fences around the outskirts of Jerusalem as part of a security plan to seal off two million Palestinians in their homes.

The Holy Land is being criss-crossed with ditches and razor wire and there are plans for a 350-km line of electronic fences and obstacles to divide Israel from the West Bank, which it seized in 1967.

Israel has speeded up its plans after its military campaign last month failed to "root out the infrastructure of terror'' in West Bank towns and refugee camps.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International