The Hindu : 16 killed in Jerusalem bus blast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 12, 2003

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16 killed in Jerusalem bus blast

The scene after the suicide bomb attack on a bus in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday. — AP

JERUSALEM JUNE 11. A Palestinian suicide bomber disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew killed 16 Israelis in a Jerusalem bus attack today, police said. Less than an hour later, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a car with two Hamas fugitives, killing them and five bystanders.

Seventy people were wounded in the Jerusalem bombing, the deadliest in three months, and 30 were injured in the Gaza City missile attack. The violence was a major setback for the U.S. President, George W. Bush's West Asia peace initiative.

Only last week, the Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers had pledged support for the so-called ``road map'' to peace and Palestinian statehood by 2005, and Mr. Bush invested his presidential prestige in the initiative.

The suicide bombing in one of Jerusalem's most heavily policed areas also underscored the vulnerability of Israel and the ineffectiveness of the Palestinian Authority's efforts to persuade militants to end terror attacks.

The bombing came a day after Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a convoy carrying Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas co-founder and policymaker, who escaped with minor injuries. Two bystanders were killed.

Hamas had threatened bloody revenge for the botched attack on Rantisi. Today, Rantisi stopped short of claiming direct responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing, but, speaking to The Associated Press from his hospital bed, said that ``the Zionists will pay an expensive price for all of their crimes.''

Rantisi, a 55-year-old former paediatrician, said the bus bombing ``took place at a time when the Zionists were on utmost alert, more evidence that our people will not be defeated.''

In Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia's Al Manar TV reported that Hamas' military wing claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing.

A West Bank datelined report today said the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, condemned the bus bombing as well as the deadly Israeli missile strike launched shortly afterwards.

``I strongly condemn this terrorist attack that targeted Israeli civilians today in Jerusalem,'' Mr. Arafat said in a televised address, in which he called for Israelis and Palestinians to cease all violence.

— AP, Reuters

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