Tel Aviv car explosion 'crime-related'
2013-01-10 18:57
Jerusalem - A car exploded near the Israeli defence
ministry in Tel Aviv on Thursday, injuring several people, in what police said
was a crime-related incident and not linked to militant groups.
"A car bomb exploded in Tel Aviv. Apparently it is a
criminal incident, a settling of accounts," police spokesperson Micky
Rosenfeld told AFP.
Israeli public radio said three people were injured in
the explosion, none seriously.
It said the attack appeared to have targeted Nissim
Halperon, head of one of Israel's top organised crime families.
Halperon has already escaped seven attempted
assassinations, including one six months ago in the Ramat Gan suburb of Tel
Aviv.
He did not appear to have been in the car when the bomb
exploded, public radio said.
Israeli organised crime gangs have been engaged in an
often violent struggle in the past few years, prompting the police to create a
special task force, Unit 443, dedicated to tackling the issue.
In recent years, around a dozen Israelis are believed to
have been killed in violence related to fighting between the various crime
families.
