Americans die in Gaza blast

AMERICAN citizens were advised to leave the Gaza Strip yesterday after a remote-controlled bomb ripped apart an armoured van, killing three US security guards.

The three Americans, security guards for diplomats, were killed in the attack near the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. Several hours after the bombing, US investigators were attacked by Palestinian stone throwers and fled as their cars were pelted by rocks.

A statement posted on the US embassy's website after the attack said: "The United States government recommends that all US citizens depart the area as soon as possible, while avoiding the area of the attack."

The US ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, said the FBI would send bomb experts to investigate. "We were shocked by this latest terrorist outrage," he said. "The United States government will investigate fully."

Kurtzer said the diplomats had been en route to Gaza City to interview Palestinian applicants for Fulbright scholarships.

He said those killed were contract employees for the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, but did not release their names. Israeli radio reports said CIA officials were travelling in the convoy, but the CIA spokesman in Washington, Bill Harlow, said: "There were no CIA people involved."

Kurtzer said up to 400 Americans, some of them of Palestinian descent, work in the Gaza Strip.

A remote-controlled bomb exploded under the US diplomatic convoy, ripping apart an armoured van and killing the three Americans in the worst attack on an official US target in Israel for many years.

The bombing, which also wounded an American, will intensify US pressure on the Palestinian Authority to take action against militant groups.

There was no claim of responsibility and Palestinian militant groups, which are usually quick in admitting their role in an attack, rushed to deny involvement.

The militants are apparently trying to avoid harsh retribution from the United States and the anger of Palestinian officials trying to work with Washington.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the attack as an "awful crime" and said he ordered an investigation.

Palestinian officials had initially said those targeted were members of a team monitoring compliance with a US-backed peace plan.

The blast went off as the three-car convoy, escorted by Palestinian police, was heading south on Gaza's main road just after entering the Gaza Strip from Israel.

After the first two cars including the police escort went by, the third car had just passed when the blast went off near a gas station, said Mohammed Radwan, a Palestinian taxi driver who was at the station at the time.

"The first two cars drove quickly and stopped far from the explosion. Palestinian security people jumped out of the car and rushed to the car that had blown up ... I saw two people covered with blood lying next to the car," he said.

The blast gouged a deep crater into the unpaved stretch of road. The attack tore the van in half and flipped it over, leaving the wreckage twisted with the tires up in the air. The pavement was stained with blood and littered with bits of flesh that were collected by Palestinian paramedics.

An AP reporter saw a grey wire with an on-off switch leading from the scene of the attack to a small concrete room at the side of the road. The blast was about a mile south of the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia denounced the attack. "We strongly condemn this incident and we will conduct an investigation and we will follow it to find the source of this attack," he told reporters in the West Bank.