Bulldozer attack: Cops on alert
2008-07-02 15:11
Jerusalem - A Palestinian man killed at least three people and wounded 30 more when he rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in central Jerusalem on Wednesday before being shot dead, medics and police said.
National police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld described the rampage as a "terrorist" attack by a 30-year-old man from occupied east Jerusalem who was working at a construction site near the busy road where it took place.
Chaos erupted as the man drove the heavy vehicle along Jaffa Road in the heart of west Jerusalem, ploughing into two crowded public buses, overturning one of them, and ramming other vehicles, reducing one car to a mangled wreck.
Several people opened fire at the man driving the earthmover and at least two policemen jumped on to vehicle, emptying several rounds into the driver and leaving him slumped over the wheel, according to AFP reporters.
The attack was the first in Jerusalem since a Palestinian gunmen shot eight Jewish students at a seminary in March and it was not immediately clear if it would have any impact on the faltering peace negotiations.
Israeli authorities said they had received no specific warnings about an impending attack but have since gone on heightened alert.
'Spontaneous incident'
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen told reporters the attack appeared to be a "spontaneous incident" carried out by a father of two who had a criminal past but no known links to armed groups.
He added however that police were looking into whether he had "received instructions" from others.
Jerusalem district police chief Aharon Franco said officers were on a search operation in the Arab neighbourhood of Sur Baher where the attacker lived.
"There is a large police force in the village trying to locate anyone linked to the incident," Franco said.
Witnesses described scenes of mayhem, with security guards and police opening fire on the tractor as it barrelled down the street past crowds of screaming pedestrians.
"There were two policemen on the truck and I climbed onto the truck and saw the attacker leaning forward on the steering wheel and driving into another car," said Eli Misrahi, a member of an elite police unit. "Then I fired two rounds and killed him."
A little-known group calling itself the Imad Mughnieh unit of the Brigades of the Liberators of the Galilee claimed responsibility in a phone call to AFP. The credibility of the claim could not be immediately established.
'Natural result of continuing Israeli aggression'
The Palestinian movement Hamas which rules Gaza called the attack "the natural result of continuing Israeli aggression and crimes against our people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem".
But the Islamist group had no immediate information about who was behind the attack, spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told reporters that the attack would not succeed in severing mostly Arab east Jerusalem from what Israel considers its "eternal, undivided" capital.
"One must remember that one third of Jerusalem are Arab citizens but all of Jerusalem is Israel's sovereign territory," he said.
"Whoever thinks that the one third of east Jerusalemites will succeed to sever part of Jerusalem and take it out of Israeli control is wrong."
Peace talks resumed between Israel and the Palestinians in November at a US-hosted conference but have stalled amid violence in and around the Gaza Strip and continued Jewish settlement building on occupied Palestinian land.
At least 524 people have been killed since the negotiations resumed, mostly militants in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to an AFP count.