Suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills at least 16

5.20am

JERUSALEM - A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 16 people and injured more than 60 on a bus in Jerusalem today, a day after an Israeli assassination attempt against a militant leader.

The blast, which tore through a bus near the city's main open-air market, was followed almost immediately by an Israeli missile strike on a car in Gaza in which witnesses said at least six people including a top Palestinian militant were killed.

Palestinian militants had threatened revenge attacks after Israel tried to kill Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas, in a helicopter missile strike in the Gaza Strip Tuesday.

President Bush condemned the Jerusalem attack in the "strongest possible terms," the White House said.

The new cycle of bloodshed threatened to wreck a US-backed peace plan which was launched just a week ago by Bush during talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan.

The plan - known as the "road map" - had created a rare glimmer of hope after 32 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

"I heard the bomb and I came to help take people off," witness Benny Peretz said. "I opened the door and I saw the terrorist's head on the ground."

Ambulances rushed to the area on the city's main Jaffa Road and medics pulled dead and wounded from the bus. The vehicle's windows were shattered and its roof partly blown off.

"It was a suicide bomber," Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said. Police and medics said at least 16 people were killed and 65 people were injured.

David Baker, an official in Sharon's office, told Reuters: "This was another example of unbridled Palestinian terrorism which must be stopped immediately by the Palestinian Authority."

The spasm of violence came as Israel defended itself against a rare US rebuke for its attempted killing of Rantissi.

Sharon had ordered aides to turn over intelligence to US officials to back accusations that Rantissi, the public face of the radical Islamic group Hamas, had been coordinating attacks on Israelis.

"This information is intended to show that Rantissi was not just a ticking bomb but a factory of ticking bombs," a senior Israeli security source said.

Israel killed one of Rantissi's aides and a woman bystander in the attack Tuesday. Hamas responded by firing rockets into a town in nearby Israel, prompting a second helicopter strike that killed three more Palestinians -- all civilians.

Seeking to calm the situation, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met Abbas and President Yasser Arafat and promised to try to restart talks with Hamas over Abbas's appeal for a cease-fire.

Bush expressed concern that the assassination attempt could weaken Abbas. "I also don't believe the attacks helped Israeli security," Bush said.

Sharon's aides said Bush's censure caught him by surprise but that Sharon was standing firm. "When it comes to (fighting) terror, there are no concessions," a government official quoted Sharon as telling his cabinet Wednesday.

Bush told aides to lean on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stick to their commitments to the road map, which stipulates reciprocal measures leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.

Some Israeli political commentators joined in the criticism of Sharon, including suggestions the right-wing leader had used the assassination attempt to try to mollify hard-liners.

- REUTERS