Simultaneous Explosions Tear Through Two Buses in Israel
Bombings Kill at Least 15 and Wound 85
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, August 31, 2004; 10:50 AM
BEERSHEBA, Israel, Aug. 31 -- Nearly simultaneous suicide bombings tore through two buses near the main plaza of the southern Israeli city of Beersheba Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 15 people and wounding 85, Israeli police said.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying said they were in retaliation for the Israeli killing of earlier this year of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and his successor Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
The blasts, which occurred within minutes of each other just before 3 p.m. Tuesday, broke a 5 1/2-month lull since two Palestinian suicide bombers detonated explosives in the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod in March, killing 10 people. After that attack, Israel assassinated Yassin and later Rantisi.
The two buses were traveling about one block from each other on opposite sides of one of the city's main intersections near the municipal plaza where the city's main government buildings are clustered, according to initial reports.
The blasts charred the interiors of both vehicles and firemen struggled to extinguish the flames as rescue personnel extricated bloodied victims from twisted metal seats. Shreds of clothing flapped from the windows of one bus as police lined up body bags on a sidewalk curb next to the second bus, early television footage showed."This is a very serious attack of the kind we haven't seen in a long time," a spokesman for the Zaka rescue service told Israel's Channel 2 television.
Eighty-five wounded persons were admitted to Soroka Hospital, the city's largest, according to the hospital's deputy director Arnon Vishnitzer. He said "seven of those are fighting for their lives" in surgery, 22 were being treated for non-life-threatening wounds and another 55 were lightly injured or suffering from shock. He said most of the victims were elderly civilians, though "a number of children are among the injured," including the seriously injured.
Tuesday's explosions were the first suicide bombings in the sprawling industrial city of Beersheba in the near four years of the Palestinian uprising against Israel, although Palestinian gunmen have carried out attacks in the city.
Beersheba is about 55 miles south of Tel Aviv and about 28 miles southwest of the West Bank city of Hebron
| retaliation [re·tal·i·a·tion || r?‚tæl?'e??n] |
