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Suicide attack kills at least 10 in Jerusalem

An Israeli rescue worker searches the wreckage of a destroyed bus following an explosion in Jerusalem yesterday. A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in central Jerusalem yesterday, killing at least 10 people, as a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Lebanese guerilla group Hezbollah got underway. PHOTO: REUTERS

A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem yesterday, killing at least 10 bystanders and wounding about 30 in an attack outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official residence, police and paramedics said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The explosion coincided with a German-brokered prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. It was not clear whether there was a connection.

The attack also came a day after Israeli troops killed eight Palestinians in the deadliest raid in the Gaza Strip in more than a month.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main groups behind a campaign of suicide bombings against Israelis, vowed revenge for the raid in Gaza City, saying five of their fighters were among those killed in fierce gun battles. Medics said the other dead were civilians, but Israel said all were armed "terrorists."

"The bloody message has been received ... and the Palestinian people will know how to respond to it," Mohammed al-Hindi, a leader of Islamic Jihad, said.

Two Israeli tanks and several armored bulldozers moved early on Wednesday out of the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, a frequent flashpoint, witnesses said.

Gun battles erupted with dozens of militants in Gaza's Zeitoun neighborhood. Troops shot dead four gunmen from Islamic Jihad including two field commanders and one fighter from Hamas before pulling back, the groups said.

Among the bystanders killed was a 17-year-old, medics said.

But the Israeli commander in charge of the operation told Army Radio: "I can say with certainty that everyone who was killed was a terrorist, armed with a weapon."

The bodies of five militants draped in Islamic Jihad black flags and one body draped in a green Hamas flag were buried as about 5,000 people marched in the cortege. Gunmen fired in the air and threatened revenge.

Yesterday's bomb went off just before 9am in the Rehavia district in downtown Jerusalem, just 15m from Sharon's official residence. Sharon was at his farm in southern Israel at the time, his aides said.

Bret Stephens, editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post, said he heard the boom and ran to the scene.

"There was glass everywhere, human remains everywhere, shoes, feet, pieces of guts. There were pieces of body everywhere," he said.
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