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Bomber targets train station { April 24 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28392-2003Apr24.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28392-2003Apr24.html
Palestinian Bomber Targets Train Station
At Least One Killed, 10 Hurt by Explosion in Kfar Saba
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 24, 2003; 4:58 AM
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a train station in the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba during morning rush hour Thursday, killing himself and a security guard and wounding 10 bystanders, police said.
The bomber was stopped by security guards at the entrance to the station, preventing greater casualties, police said. One of the guards was killed.
An apparent splinter group of a militia linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a call to The Associated Press, a man identifying himself as a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade said the bomber was 18-year-old Ahmed Khatib from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.
However, the official spokesman for Al Aqsa, which has ties to Arafat's Fatah movement, denied the militia was involved. The spokesman, known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mujahed, said the attack was apparently carried out by a breakaway faction of the militia.
The caller said the bombing was carried out jointly with the armed wing of a radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hamas leaders said Wednesday they would continue their attacks, but would stop short of engaging in blood confrontations with Palestinian security forces.
Thursday's blast went off shortly after 7:00 a.m. (midnight EDT), at a train station in Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv, as commuters waited to travel to work.
The entrance to the station was blown out, with wires dangling from the ceiling and debris scattered across the steps. Dazed passengers were led away from the station, including members of a scout troop who sat on a sidewalk, sipping water.
Yeruham Mandola, spokesman for Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service, said 10 people were wounded, including two who were in serious condition.
Kfar Saba lies just a few miles from the Palestinian town of Qalqiliya in the West Bank.
David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, said the bombing was "a vicious attack against in Israeli civilians and another attempt to instill fear in the heart of Israelis."
Thursday's blast came a day after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his prime minister-designate, Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, set aside their differences over the composition of a new Palestinian Cabinet, paving the way for the presentation of a U.S.-backed peace plan that envisions Palestinian statehood within three years.
Abbas has been an outspoken critic of attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants, and is expected to oversee a crackdown on Palestinian militias, along with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza strongman he appointed to a top security post.
© 2003 The Associated Press
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