A massive explosion ripped apart a US diplomatic vehicle yesterday, killing three Americans and wounding one in the first attack on a US target in three years of Israel-Palestinian fighting.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack was condemned by Palestinian officials who said those killed were members of a US monitoring team sent to the region to supervise implementation of a US-backed peace plan.
The attack could deal a major blow to Palestinian efforts to bring more international monitors to the region.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The blast went off at around 10:15am as a three-car US diplomatic convoy with a Palestinian police escort drove near a gas station on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, along the main north-south road. Israeli reports said the US cars were armored.
The explosion apparently was set off by a remote-control roadside bomb. The blast tore the van in half and left the wreckage twisted with the tires up in the air. The pavement was stained with blood and littered with bits of flesh.
A reporter saw a gray wire with an on-off switch leading from the scene of the attack to a small concrete room at the side of the road.
Palestinian militants have attacked Israeli army and settler convoys in Gaza repeatedly in the past three years of fighting, both with bombs and gunfire. Islamic militants, responsible for the bulk of the attacks, have said in the past they have no interest in "exporting" the conflict by taking aim at non-Israeli targets.
Mohammed Radwan, a Palestinian taxi driver, said he was at the gas station when the blast went off.
"I was about to fill up my car with gas when I saw the American convoy passing," Radwan said. "There was a Palestinian police car in front and then three big [US] cars. When the third one passed, an explosion went off."
"The first two cars drove quickly and stopped far from the explosion. Palestinian security people jumped out of the car and rushed to the car that had blown up. When I tried to approach them, they shouted at me to leave. I saw two people covered with blood lying next to the car," he said.
Three Americans were killed and one was wounded, according to Palestinian, Israeli and US officials. The wounded man was initially treated at a Gaza hospital and was awaiting transfer to Soroka Hospital in the Israeli town of Beersheba.
US diplomatic sources said the people in the targeted car were security guards for the US diplomats traveling in the other vehicles.
Israeli radio reports said CIA officials were traveling in the convoy. Palestinian officials said the diplomats were US monitors. Some of the monitors are from the CIA.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia denounced the attack.
"We strongly condemn this incident and we will conduct an investigation and we will follow it to find the source of this attack," he told reporters in the West Bank.
Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat suggested the blast would undercut the long-standing Palestinian plea for international supervision in the West Bank and Gaza.
"These are American monitors that have come here at our request," Erekat said. "These people were here to help us."
Israeli officials said the attack underscored the need to dismantle Palestinian militant groups -- a requirement of the stalled, US-backed "road map" peace plan that Palestinian leaders have refused to carry out.
"What happened is evidence that no one is immune, unfortunately, to Palestinian terrorism, even when we are talking about the representatives of ... the United States, whose entire goal was and remains to advance a peace agreement between the sides," said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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