Jerusalem: suicide bomb kills four

Created: 19 June 2002

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in Jerusalem on today, killing at least four people, Israeli police said.

"The bomber ran to the bus stop. Police officers chased him. When he reached the bus stop he detonated a powerful bomb," Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy told Army Radio.

A police spokesman said at least four people had been killed in the blast, which took place in the early evening rush hour at a bus stop in the northern French Hill neighbourhood of Jerusalem, near Israel's national police headquarters.

Television footage showed the bodies of several people lying by the concrete bus stop. The ground was littered with pieces of human flesh and piles of shredded paper and clothing. The pavement next to the bus stop was streaked with blood.

Several bags, including a backpack, lay on the ground. Medics treated the wounded and police sappers searched for more explosives.

Israel Radio said at least 35 people were wounded in the attack, eight of them critically.

The White House responded swiftly to the attack -- the second suicide bombing in Jerusalem in two days -- by saying that President George W. Bush's Middle East policy speech laying out the path to a Palestinian state would be delayed.

"It's obvious that the immediate aftermath is not the right time," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters at his daily briefing. "The president knows what he wants to say. The president will share it when...it can do the most good."

The Palestinian Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing, al-Manar television said.

The television, which belongs to the Hizbollah movement, said it received a statement by al-Aqsa saying the bombing was in response to Israeli attacks on Palestinian territory and assassination of Palestinian activists.

"Zionists, leave this land. We will not stop our operations as long as there remains an occupier on our land," the statement said.

Israeli police said a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in the northern French hill neighbourhood, near the national police headquarters.

Al-Aqsa is an offshoot of President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction. The group said it carried out two suicide bombing attacks on Israeli cities last month.

Police in Jerusalem had been on the alert for more suicide attacks after a bomber from the guerrilla organisation Hamas killed 19 people on a crowded commuter bus in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Israeli forces grabbed a foothold in the West Bank city of Jenin and in Qalqilya on Wednesday after responding to that bombing with a major policy shift -- a vow to retake and hold Palestinian land as long as attacks continue.

It was the latest in a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinians since an uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace negotiations deadlocked.

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