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| Middle East |
| Al-Aqsa sez they did the booming... |
| 2003-01-06 |
| Source: The Guardian Dual bombings in the heart of Tel Aviv has killed at least 23 people, many of them believed to be migrant workers from Africa, eastern Europe and the Philippines. The slaughter brought a shattering end to a lull of more than six weeks without such attacks in Israel, just three weeks before its general election. The "lull" was marked by arrest after arrest of Near simultaneous explosions blew apart parallel streets packed with busy shops and cafes in an area that is home to much of the city's poor foreign labour. "I was in the middle of the street," said John Adu, a Ghanaian cleaner, who had gone out for food. "I heard this boom and I ran until I fell down. People were stepping on me. I couldn't stand up. When I got up there was this second explosion. I thought, my God, I'm going to die here in Israel." With the Israelis... Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, heard the powerful explosions in the vicinity of Tel Aviv's old bus station while he was visiting Israel's army headquarters. The ambulance service said the blasts also injured about 120 people. The explosives were powerful enough to hurl body parts hundreds of yards and shatter windows several blocks away. That's an awful lot of casualties. They keep trying for higher numbers. One fellow, a few weeks ago, was lugging so much explosive around he toppled over backward trying to get on a bus to boom it... Qatar's Jazeera satellite television said last night that the the Palestinian militant group al-Aqsa Brigades had claimed responsibility. The station showed a statement signed by the group - the military wing of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction - and said it named the attackers as Boraq Abdel Rahman Halfa and Saber al-Nouri from Nablus. The statement said the men had carried out the blasts to avenge the destruction of Palestinian homes, the station added. It did not give any more details. Now their own homesteads can go. But they were probably renting... Earlier a Lebanese television station, al-Manar, said Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility in a phone call to its West Bank correspondent, although Abdullah Shami, an Islamic Jihad leader, cast doubt on the claim. Manar's the Hezbollah network — all slaughter, all the time... Late last night Israeli attack helicopters fired four missiles at an unspecified target in Gaza City. There were no reports of casualties. It is inevitable that the dual bombing will bring a strong response from the government, particularly with the election three weeks away and security the primary issue for most voters. One of these times, the boomers are going to push the Israelis over the edge, and those rockets are going to start hitting the political leadership of Hamas, Jihad, and Fatah. The Paleos will then try to retaliate by taking out Israeli politicians — but it's never going to end until Sheikh Yassin, Rantissi, and all the other bigwigs who don't expect to die for the cause are rotting. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |