Gaza bomb kills three in US convoy

10.15pm

GAZA - A roadside bomb has ripped through a US diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip, killing three security guards in the first attack on US officials in three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Israel Radio said the convoy included representatives from US Middle East envoy John Wolf's office and the CIA, but US officials said Wolf was not in the region at the time.

A silver Cherokee jeep used by American diplomats was completely destroyed in the bomb blast, which dug a large crater in the street. Blood and wreckage were splattered metres (yards) away and a black shoe lay on the ground.

Israeli security sources said three security guards attached to the US diplomatic contingent were killed and a diplomat was wounded in the blast. Israel Radio had earlier reported four dead.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv said: "I can confirm there were American casualties."

It was the first time that a convoy of US diplomats had been targeted in Israel or the Palestinian territories where violence has raged since a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.

A US-backed "road map" for peace that Wolf was responsible for promoting on the ground has been stalled in recent months by tit-for-tat violence and Palestinian political infighting.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie quickly denounced the attack and vowed to investigate.

"We strongly condemn this incident regardless of who is behind it and we express deep regret over the killing and injury," Qurie told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Palestinian militants have frequently detonated roadside bombs against Israeli troops operating in parts of the Gaza Strip.

Shortly after the blast, Israeli tanks swept onto the scene and opened fire with machine guns in the vicinity, witnesses said.

Palestinian security sources said the Israeli army had informed them that troops would arrive with US diplomatic officials to carry out an investigation.

A Reuters witness saw a detonator wire stretched for about 100 metres (330 feet) away from the blown-up vehicle into a factory area at the entrance to the Jabalya refugee camp, near Gaza City.

"We were inside our storage room, and heard the siren of police cars approaching. A few seconds later there was a huge explosion and shrapnel from body parts and debris from damaged M-16s (assault rifles) were scattered everywhere," said witness Ahmed Samir.

A US embassy spokesman confirmed that a US vehicle had been hit by an explosion in the Gaza Strip. He said the car was "a security contractors' car, it was not an embassy vehicle per se".

The discovery of a detonator wire by a Reuters correspondent at the scene indicated the blast may have been timed to hit the convoy.

"I was standing by the side of the road when a convoy led by a Palestinian police car drove by. It was followed by two foreign jeeps and at the back there was another Palestinian police car," a witness, Khaled Abu Nour said.

"There was an explosion and one of the two jeeps blew up and was torn apart. We saw on the ground three people dead. They looked like they were foreigners...a fourth was badly wounded."

Hospital workers bundled up body parts in a bedsheet and one body was brought to the morgue in Shifa hospital, Palestinian medics said.

- REUTERS