Suicide Bombing Rocks Israel, Killing 15

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Suicide Bombing Rocks Israel, Killing 15

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Suicide Bombing Rocks Israel, Killing 15

At least 15 people were killed and some 40 others wounded Wednesday in a suicide bombing attack in Israel's northern city of Haifa, amid its efforts to rally more support for hammering out a treaty against suicide bombers.

The deadly suicide bombing, which occurred at about 2:20 p.m. (1220 GMT) on the main Moriah Boulevard, was the first suicide bombing in Israel following a similar one on Jan. 5, when 23 peoplewere killed in a twin suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv.

"The center of the bus lifted up into the air, the roof was tornoff. It looked like a blast inside the bus, and within seconds people began taking the wounded out of the bus," a witness told Israel TV.

The driver of the bus that was blown up, Marwan Damouni, told Army Radio that the explosion went off as he stopped at a station and opened the doors to let passengers off.

"I suddenly heard an explosion, I tried to move, to see if therewere wounded ... I couldn't hear anything because of the force of the blast," he said.

Both Israeli and Palestinian security sources said the suicide bomber had likely come from the West Bank city of Jenin, which houses such radical groups as the Islamic Jihad (Holy War), Al-AqsaMartyrs Brigades and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

But no Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, spokesman for Hamas, praised the Haifa attack and vowed to continue resistance, but he did not claim responsibility.

"We will not stop our resistance," he said. "We are not going togive up in the face of the daily killing of the Palestinians."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Office said it held Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for the attack, which came just days after the establishment of a new right-wing government led by Sharon.

Sharon's aide David Baker reportedly termed the attack as another "Palestinian bloodletting of innocent Israeli civilians," saying Israel will not tolerate "terror" and will continue to take necessary steps to eradicate it.

On the Palestinian side, cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether the Palestinians or Israelis," but said the Palestinian side rejected the Israeli claim that the Palestinian National Authority was responsible.

US President George W. Bush swiftly denounced the attack, sayingterrorists would not prevail in the region.

"The president condemns in the strongest terms today's attack oninnocents in Israel," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

"The message to the terrorists is their efforts will not be successful. We will continue to pursue the path of peace in the Middle East, and he (Bush) urges all to condemn today's attack," hesaid.

UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen condemned the attack as "a horrible act of terrorism" and "a cynical act of pre-meditated murder and nothing else."

France, Britain, Germany and Russia also condemned the attack inthe strongest terms, Army Radio reported.

Sharon is expected to convene his cabinet ministers and senior security officials Wednesday night to discuss Israel's reaction to the deadly attack.

Any retaliation, however, would be on a scale that could not disrupt any US preparations for a possible war on Iraq, local analysts said, adding Sharon should ensure a relatively quiet situation between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of the looming war.

The United States, which wants the situation to remain quiet, has criticized Israel for abusing its power to crack down on the Palestinians during recent operations in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the offensives.

Viewed as a reaction to Israel's military operation, the Haifa bombing attack would be interpreted by Israel as an evidence for the need to hammer out a treaty to ban suicide bombers.

Israel's Foreign Ministry has completed a draft of an international convention to ban suicide bombers and will soon begindistributing it to foreign governments in an effort to obtain enough signatures to make it an internationally recognized treaty.

The proposed document calls for an international ban on incitement and support for suicide bombings and the creation of a new international organization to help combat suicide bombings.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands of others wounded in suicide bombing attacks over the past two years.

Nearly 3,000 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killedsince the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising,againstIsraeli occupation in September 2000.

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