The Hindu : 16 die in car bomb attack

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 06, 2002

International

International

16 die in car bomb attack

By Kesava Menon

Rescue workers sift through the debris of the bombed out passenger bus at the Megido junction, between the Israeli port of Haifa and the Palestinian West Bank town of Jenin, on Wednesday. — AFP

Manama (Bahrain) June 5. At least 16 persons, many of them Israeli soldiers, were killed when a car bomb explosion shredded a bus in northern Israel today.

Palestinian militant factions have declared that such attacks will continue so long as Israel is in occupation of Palestinian territory. In retaliation for today's attack, an Israeli tank column entered the West Bank town of Jenin which is very close to the Megiddo junction where the attack took place.

According to reports, Israeli forensic specialists are said to believe that a car packed with explosives was driven along side the bus and blown up. The bus was said to have somersaulted several times before it flipped off the road and burst into flames. From the television images all that remained of the car was simmering ruins of the engine housing.

Both Israelis and Palestinian officials have reacted predictably with the former blaming the Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, for not issuing firm orders to his security forces to stop such missions. For their part, the Palestinians have said that there is little they could do to prevent such attacks when their authority no longer functions and when the Israelis have ringed their towns.

A simmering debate in the Israeli Cabinet is likely to hot up. Some of the Ministers had been pressing for a policy under which their military would be encamped in Palestinian towns for an indefinite period. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had thus far argued that the current policy of cordoning off Palestinian towns combined with sudden incursions to nab suspected militants was working well.

Today's incident would cast doubts on the efficacy of Mr. Sharon's policy and a fresh challenge from the other Ministers can be expected.

The latest attack took place just after the conclusion of a visit to the region by the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet. His mission this time was to advise and guide Mr. Arafat towards streamlining and re-organising his security services.

Mr. Arafat had hinted that he was ready to follow U.S. advice to reduce his forces from a dozen to a more manageable four. It was not clear whether this decision had been implemented as yet.

In any case, such a re-organisation is not related to today's incident since it will take a while before the new arrangements can be made to work on the ground.

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