Tel Aviv suicide blasts kill 15

TWO suicide bombers blew themselves up minutes apart last night in a central Tel Aviv area crowded with foreign workers, killing at least 15 bystanders and wounding nearly 40.

Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group, claimed responsibility for the bombings the first such attack since November near Tel Aviv's former central bus station. The claim came in a phone call to the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar.

The bombings came three weeks before Israel's January 28 general election. A renewed spate of Palestinian terror attacks is expected to boost support for hardline parties, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud.

About 40 people were wounded in the blasts, several of them critically, police and rescue workers said.

Police said the attack was a double suicide bombing, similar to an attack in the same area in August.

Most of the casualties were in a restaurant called McChina, TV reports said, showing pictures of rescue workers loading casualties into ambulances.

Tel Aviv chief Yossi Sedbon said between 10 and 15 people were killed in the bombings. Israel television's Channel Two said eight bodies were found at the site of one bombing, and seven bodies at the site of the second blast. It was not immediately clear whether this included the two bombers.

The evacation of the wounded was hampered by traffic jams in the narrow alleys near the site of the explosion. Ambulances waited in line to get out of the area, and wounded were brought to the waiting vehicles by residents.

Bystanders were helping to remove the wounded from the scene using doors torn from their hinges as makeshift stretchers.

In the past 27 months of fighting, Palestinian militias have carried out scores of bombings in Israel.

Egypt and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement have been trying to persuade the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups to halt attacks on civilians in Israel. Talks in Cairo were to resume next week.

Yitzhak Teva, a local barber, who was slightly injured, said he was busy cutting hair when the blast went off.

"Half the wall fell on me and I was covered in broken glass," Mr Teva said. "I shut the shop and then there was the next explosion."

In the past 27 months of fighting, Palestinian militias have carried out scores of bombings in Israel.