Suicide attack kills 16

KARKUR JUNCTION, Israel -- A car pulled alongside a commuter bus and exploded Monday, trapping passengers in the flaming vehicle. Sixteen people were killed and 30 wounded in what police said was a suicide attack.\nTwo bombers were among the 16 dead, police said. The militant Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place in the afternoon rush hour in northern Israel.\nIn a letter faxed to The Associated Press in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, Islamic Jihad said the bombing 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.\nIsrael's army launched military strikes in an effort to prevent suicide attacks, which have now claimed the lives of 292 people--not including the bombers--in the past two years of violence. There have been 79 suicide attacks over that period.\nThe powerful blast Monday happened 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.\n"The explosion was so strong that I fell to the floor," Michael Ithaki, a passenger who was sitting behind the bus driver, told Army Radio. "I looked back and quickly got off the bus, then it burst into flames."\nThere were several soldiers aboard the bus, at least one of whom was killed.\n"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."\nThe Hadera area has been a frequent target of Palestinian militants who have carried out dozens of bomb attacks in the Mideast in the past two years of violence. Although Hadera is on Israel's Mediterranean coast, it is only a few miles from the northern West Bank, where many of the suicide bombers have come from.\nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of the bombing: "The president condemns the most recent attack in Israel. It's another reminder of how it's so important for peace to be pursued and for terror to be stopped."\nMark Sofer, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the attack was intended to undermine the visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who was scheduled to arrive in Israel on Wednesday.\n"Palestinian groups seized the opportunity to carry out yet another murderous attack inside of Israel aimed at innocent civilians, and one can only wonder and wonder again what do they want to achieve except for death, death and more death of innocent people."\nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking at his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said: "You know that the Palestinian leadership position is against such attacks that target civilians, Israelis or Palestinians."\nIsrael 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.\nIsrael 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 hardline Cabinet ministers of expelling the Palestinian leader.\nThe explosions-laden car apparently came from the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank, police commander Yaakov Borofsky told Israeli Radio.