Bus Explosion Hits Israel, Killing 14, Injuring 15

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 05, 2002

Bus Explosion Hits Israel, Killing 14, Injuring 15

At least 14 Israelis were killed and some 15 others wounded seriously Wednesday morning in a powerful bus explosion in northern Israel, Israel TV reported.

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At least 14 Israelis were killed and some 15 others wounded seriously Wednesday morning in a powerful bus explosion in northern Israel, Israel TV reported.

The explosion occurred at about 0715 local time (0415 GMT) at the Megiddo junction just outside the northern city of Afula.

An eyewitnesses said casualties were "in the dozens" and that the bus was still burning some 20 minutes after the explosion.

"The scene is very serious, this is an incident with a very large number of casualties. A car bomb affixed itself to a bus, and the result was very, very serious," said northern Israeli police commander Yaakov Borovsky.

Borovsky said that although details were still under investigation, it was clear that the Palestinian attack involved "a car bomb that exploded next to a bus traveling from Afula to Hadera."

Afula and the two other northern cities of Hadera and Netanya, near the West Bank Palestinian areas of Jenin and Nablus, have suffered some terror attacks, including suicide bombing attacks, in the past 20 months.

No Palestinian organization claims responsibility for the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was reportedly to convene his security cabinet to discuss Israel's response to the attack, apparently one of the most serious incidents in recent months.

The security cabinet had scheduled a meeting to discuss warnings of an escalation in violence with Hezbollah (Party of God) guerillas along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, but the bombing would altered the meeting's agenda.

Sharon was scheduled to leave for the United States on Thursday and was expected to come back with a plan how to adequately deal with an escalation along the northern border.

It was not immediately known if the prime minister would change his travel plan in the wake of the bombing.

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