A suicide bomber blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus early yesterday, killing seven passengers and himself, police said. At least 20 others were wounded, four in serious condition, while a second bomber blew himself up on the outskirts of the city.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon postponed a trip to Washington for talks with US President George W. Bush on a peace plan after receiving news of the attacks.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The bus attack happened at an intersection at the northern edge of the city, police said. Five dead passengers were still in their seats in the front of the bus, one leaning out a window, an hour after the blast.
The bomber was dressed in a white prayer shawl and skull cap worn by observant Jews "to give the impression he was coming home from morning prayers," said police spokesman Gil Kleiman. Police Chief Mickey Levy said this was not the first time that suicide bombers have dressed as Jews in order to infiltrate Israel.
Police said the second bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the village of Dahiya el-Barid, near Jerusalem. Police said the bomber was killed in the blast on the highway, and no one else was hurt.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.
Sharon postponed his planned trip to Washington yesterday to meet with Bush after hearing of the attacks.
Yesterday's bombings were part of a sudden surge in Palestinian attacks -- four in 12 hours -- including a bombing in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday night in which a suicide bomber killed an Israeli man and his pregnant wife. Also, two armed Palestinians tried to attack a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and were killed by soldiers.
The attacks appeared to be timed to coincide with a summit meeting between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday night to discuss a new peace plan. It was the first top-level meeting between the two sides in nearly three years.
In a statement after the meeting, Sharon said it was agreed that the first priority in peacemaking must be stopping Palestinian attacks.
The bus bomber struck at a few minutes before 6am yesterday morning, at the beginning of a rush hour on a work day in Israel. Witnesses said the bomb went off on a large bus divided into two sections as it neared a bridge in one of Jerusalem's largest intersections, outside the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat and the Jewish neighborhood of French Hill, in the part of Jerusalem Israel captured in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians.
It was the first such attack in Jerusalem since last November. In 93 suicide attacks since the current violence erupted in September 2000, 357 bystanders have been killed. Most were carried out by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but recently the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to the mainstream Fatah, have taken responsibility.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS