Suicide driver kills 13 in bus attack

A SUICIDE bomber drove his car alongside a bus in northern Israel during the afternoon rush-hour yesterday, detonated his deadly cargo and killed at least 13 people as the entire bus was engulfed in flames.

The powerful blast, which turned the bus and the car into blackened skeletons, occurred several miles inland from the coastal town of Hadera, at Karkur Junction. The intense flames sent plumes of smoke into the sky and initially prevented police and rescue workers from approaching the bus.

"A car full of explosives drew up next to the bus and blew up," said Zelig Feiner, spokesman for Zaka rescue service.

"Then the bus exploded into flames, trapping a lot of people on board." He said there were 13 people killed a figure that could include one or two attackers in the car. Police official Danny Kuffer said at least 10 people were killed, "but were still counting." More than 30 people were hurt, according to rescue workers.

The militant Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility in a letter faxed to Associated Press, in Beirut, Lebanon. The group said the attack was in "retaliation for the series of massacres committed by the criminal enemy against our people." It cited recent Israeli military operations that have resulted in Palestinian civilian deaths in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. After several previous attacks, the Israeli army has carried out military strikes and security crackdowns in Palestinian areas. Israel did not immediately say what actions it might take.

Mark Sofer, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the attack was intended to undermine the visit of US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who is scheduled to arrive in

Israel tomorrow. Yasser Arafat, speaking at his compound in Ramallah, said: "You know that the Palestinian leadership position is against such attacks that target civilians, Israelis or Palestinians."

Israel has said it holds Arafat ultimately responsible, arguing that his security forces have not made a serious attempt to prevent attacks. The Palestinians say Israel's devastating military strikes have rendered their security forces impotent against the militants.

Israel responded to the last major bomb attack in September with a

10-day siege of Arafat in which its tanks destroyed much of what was left of his Ramallah compound and such attacks always revive talk among hard-line Cabinet ministers of expelling the Palestinian leader.

The explosions-laden car apparently came from the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank, police commander Yaakov Borofsky said . He said there may have been two suicide bombers in the car. "The explosion was so strong that I fell to the floor," said Michael Ithaki, a passenger who was sitting behind the bus driver. "I looked back and quickly got off the bus, then it burst into flames.

"We succeeded in getting one soldier off the bus," he added. "Two minutes after that more explosions started ... and we couldn't get on the bus because it was on fire. Some of the soldiers climbed out the windows and survived."

Israel has been taking extraordinary steps in an attempt to prevent attacks - including imposing curfews on hundreds of thousands in the West Bank's Palestinian cities but even these measures proved insufficient to stop Monday's bombing.

Ron Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said security officers in cars are now trailing buses, looking out for potential car bombs. "From the first reports reaching me, there was such a vehicle tens of metres from the car bomb," he said.

A rescue worker said there was also an armed guard on the bus, but there was nothing he could do.

Palestinian militants have carried out dozens of bomb attacks in the past two years of Mideast violence, and the Hadera area has been a frequent target. Earlier yesterday, in the West Bank, defiant Israeli settlers tried to rebuild an illegal West Bank outpost called Havat Gilad that security forces had torn down a day earlier.

The two sides appeared headed for another round of confrontation.