http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011205/1/21il7.html

Wednesday December 5, 4:53 PM

Suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills bomber, leaves several injured A suicide bomber blew himself to pieces in front of the Hilton hotel in west Jerusalem, slightly injuring three people, one day after Israel launched massive raids in response to previous attacks on its cities, a police spokesman said.

"The explosion was caused by a suicide bomber and there were no victims," police spokesman Gil Kleinman told AFP.

The suicide bomber was the only person to have died in the blast, Jerusalem police commander Micky Levy said.

The bomb, which contained nails and metal fragments, was set off on the main road in front of the hotel, Levy said.

An AFP photographer on the scene said the bomber's torso was blown into a first-storey room of the hotel. The wall below the window was smeared with blood, while a dismembered leg was left on the road as police moved in to seal off the area.

They also evacuated Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, who was staying in the hotel. He told public radio: "I hope all suicide attempts end up with such a toll."

A fleet of ambulances was rushed to the scene and police sealed of the road, casuing major disruption the city's rush-hour traffic.

Kleinman said the three injured people had been hit by flying glass and that two were "in a state of shock".

Israeli army radio said US peace envoy Anthony Zinni, staying in a neighbouring hotel, must have heard the explosion.

On Saturday, Jerusalem was hit by a double suicide bomb attack which left 12 people dead, including the bombers, and some 180 injured.

Less than 12 hours later, another suicide bomber killed 14 Israelis and a woman from the Philippines as well as himself on a bus in Haifa, northern Israel.

The unprecedented wave of attacks has been met by Israeli reprisals, of a level not seen since 1994. Two Palestinians were killed and more than 120 injured in a wave of air raids Monday and Tuesday.

Israeli officials declined to say what the government's response to the latest attack might be, although a foreign ministry spokesman said that if Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat does not start seriously cracking down on extremists, Israel will do so itself.

"This attack is just one more demonstration of the Palestinian willingness to use terrorism to kill innocent Israelis in the streets of Jerusalem. Israel will not allow killers to walk its streets freely," said spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

"If Arafat does not swiftly take things in hand and does nothing to combat terrorism, it is obvious that Israel will have to do so itself," he added.

Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert congratulated the police "who foiled the attempted attack thanks to tight security."

Olmert, a member of right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party, railed against Arafat.

"We have to get rid of Arafat, not physically eliminate him. The terrorism which he is behind will not make us bow down," said the mayor, who added that the city's Jewish population would start to celebrate the holiday of Hannukah on Sunday "perhaps with the mayor of New York."

Israel, which has been on high alert since the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, started 14 months ago, has mobilised all its security forces since the latest rise in violence.

It had been expecting retaliation from the hardline Islamic group Hamas since it assassinated one of its top military planners on November 23 ina helciopter gunship attack that killed Mahmud Abu Hannud and two of his lieutenants.

As part of their intensified efforts, Israeli police have uncovered a cache of suicide bomb-belts in the Ashkelon region south of Tel-Aviv, public radio reported Wednesday.

The explosives were primed to be activated by Palestinian suicide bombers who would wear the belts in public places. Police experts disabled the bombs.

The haul was discovered after Israel's Shin Beth security service arrested and interrogated a Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip.

An investigation was underway to track down all those responsible for the bomb belts, the radio said.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

Answers

Absolute proof that: a) Arafat has no power over these people, and/or b) he doesn't care.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001