Bomb blasts Israelis at busy lunch bar

HERZLIYA - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a sandwich shop in the Israeli coastal town of Herzliya yesterday, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding eight other people.

The attack followed new Israeli raids in the West Bank after United States President George W. Bush closed ranks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington and supported Israel's right to defend itself.

Israeli forces kept Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah surrounded for a second day as Sharon wrapped up his efforts to sideline the Palestinian leader.

Bush made no criticism of the Ramallah raid, and a senior Israeli source was optimistic about the US visit, saying: "I think we got what we wanted on this trip."

In Herzliya, an affluent town just north of Tel Aviv that is home to many ambassadors, the bomber walked up to the sandwich shop on a busy street, asked for a drink of water and then detonated his load.

"He had a beard, was wearing a green shirt and was holding something in one hand," said one of the wounded.

Noting that unexploded bomb components were found at the scene, authorities said poor fusing may have averted worse bloodshed.

Another witness said he heard the man shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) before blowing himself up.

The explosion shattered glass, overturned tables and sprayed blood on potted plants. All that remained of the bomber was a headless torso.

In Washington, Sharon declined to comment on the bombing, but a senior official in his entourage said: "We know what happened and we all know who is responsible."

Sharon has consistently accused Arafat of being the guiding force behind Palestinian terrorism. But Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing and pledged to do its utmost to prevent attacks on civilians inside Israel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Herzliya attack, nor for a bomb near a bus in the West Bank on Tuesday that wounded three teenage students from a religious seminary at the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops guarding Netzarim settlement shot dead a man and an 8-year-old boy at the nearby Palestinian village of Mughraqa in two separate incidents, Palestinian officials said.

The Army said troops had fired at three gunmen approaching Netzarim's access route in the first incident, and, in the second, had fired back after being shot at from Mughraqa.

In Hebron on the West Bank, Palestinian militants shot two men suspected of collaborating with Israel.

The corpse of Anas al-Ashab was propped against the gate of the university where he worked, eyes bandaged and a bullet in the neck.

Eyman Joulani's body was dumped in the street across from a mosque beside the car which an Israeli helicopter hit with a missile weeks before when it killed a local militant leader.

The military wing of Arafat's Fatah claimed responsibility for the executions.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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