10-15-2003, 09:06 AM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: May 2002
Location: CT
Posts: 5,246
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Three americans killed in gaza
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...ast/index.html
Quote:
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A bomb went off underneath a convoy carrying U.S. diplomats in Gaza on Wednesday, killing three American members of a security detail and injuring another, U.S. officials said.
"We're shocked by this latest terrorist outrage," said U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer.
The convoy was carrying U.S. Embassy officials to Gaza to interview Palestinian students who have applied for Fulbright scholarships in the United States, Kurtzer said.
The four Americans were employed by the U.S. Embassy to provide security, Kurtzer said, and the FBI is sending experts to investigate. Two Americans died on the scene, a third died on the way to a hospital, and a fourth was hospitalized, he said.
The convoy was carrying at least 12 Americans, according to Israeli sources.
Several hours after the attack, the U.S. Embassy issued an advisory calling on U.S. citizens to leave Gaza. The embassy did not say how many U.S. citizens might be in Gaza but the number is thought to be small.
A senior U.S. State Department official said the convoy had just entered Gaza through the Erez Checkpoint and was traveling a route often used by U.S. diplomats.
According to the State Department, a roadside bomb was triggered immediately after the Palestinian police cars in the convoy passed by, hitting the U.S. vehicle.
An Associated Press correspondent at the scene reported seeing a gray wire leading from the bomb crater to a small concrete building nearby. He said an on/off switch was attached to the wire. Video of the scene showed a crater, about three feet deep and eight feet wide.
No group has claimed responsibility. Two Palestinian militant groups -- Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad -- told news agencies they had nothing to do with the bombing.
The attack was believed to be the first aimed at Americans since the beginning of the current Palestinian uprising, now in its third year.
Kurtzer said the attack would not change the U.S. commitment to the peace process and the Palestinian Authority had been asked to arrest those responsible.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei strongly condemned the attack, offered his condolences, and promised an investigation.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat also offered his condolences and condemned the attack.
"These people were here to help us," Erakat insisted, saying an attack on what he described as U.S. monitors was not in the interest of the Palestinian people. "I don't think this was a deliberate attack against the Americans.
"We offer to have an immediate, joint Palestinian-American investigation committee to investigate the matter," Erakat said.
John Wolf, special U.S. envoy to the Middle East, was not in the country at the time of the attack despite media reports that said he was in the convoy, the embassy said.
Erakat said the Americans were in Gaza as part of the U.S.-backed "road map" for peace in the region.
The road map -- a plan put forth by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- calls for an end to "violence and terrorism" and envisions an independent Palestine existing side-by-side with Israel by 2005.
Dore Gold, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also offered condolences, noting that Israelis "understand exactly the kind of grief this terrible, terrible terrorism causes."
"Clearly these attacks are motivated by the same anti-Western, anti-American feelings that unite all these forces in the Middle East," he said.
Gold said "this attack would never have occurred" if the Palestinian Authority had cracked down on terrorist groups.
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From cnn
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