950821

Israel halts peace

talks after six killed

in bus blast

JERUSALEM: A suspected Islamic suicide bomber killed at least six people and wounded more than 100 on buses in Jerusalem on Monday during the morning rush hour.

Israel radio said a caller from the militant Moslem group Hamas, which opposes the Israel-PLO peace process, claimed responsiblity for the attack. There was no official confirmation of the claim.

Israel television said police were investigating one report that the bomber was a woman. Previous Islamic bombers have been men.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin immediately put on hold peace talks with the PLO, which condemned the bombing.

The blast tore through an articulated commuter bus at 7.55 a.m. (0555 GMT) and hit another bus, which was passing by.

The headless body of one passenger sat amid the mangled and blood-spattered wreckage of the first bus, which was travelling north towards Jerusalem's Mount Scopus. Bodies lay beside the second bus, which moved on for about 100 metres (yards) after the explosion.

Rescuers pulled wounded from the wreckage and piled bags and belongings on the sidewalk. A special unit of rabbis picked up body parts for burial.

Such carnage has become familiar in Israel, which has been hit by a wave of suicide bomings by Islamic opponents of the 1993 Israel-PLO peace accord.

A Hamas suicide bomber killed six people on a bus in a Tel Aviv suburb on July 24.

"There were two people sitting inside the bus and around them was fire. People were screaming to get them out but everyone panicked," said Asaf Shlonsky, 16, who was standing on a pedestrian overpass above the blast.

Rabin's office said peace talks in the Red Sea resort of Eilat were on hold.

"The decision is not to suspend the talks but to halt the talks today and during the day the prime minister will meet with advisers during which he will decide today what to do further," said offical Yarden Vatikai. Rabin suspended talks on extending Palestinian self-rule during the week of mourning after the Tel Aviv bomb.

About 100 right-wing Israeli demonstrated at the scene of the blast and jeered Police Minister Moshe Shahal. One policeman was injured by a stone.

PLO chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the blast.

"I condemn it completely and we cannot accept this terrorist activity," he told reporters in PLO-ruled Gaza.

The Gaza Strip was sealed off from Israel last week as Palestinian police searched for would-be suicide bombers after an alert by Israeli police. They arrested three suspects and the closure of the Strip was eased on Sunday.

Israel radio said a caller said in Arabic: "The operation was carried out by a cell of students of Yahya Ayyash. The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades from now until the (Israeli) elections has prepared a campaign...because Rabin has declared an all-out war against Hamas."

Ayyash, dubbed the engineer, is top of the Israeli army's most wanted list. He is believed to have made many of the bombs used by Qassam, the military wing of Hamas.

The bombing campaign has undermined Israeli support for the peace deal and Rabin, who must call an election by November next year. Both he and Arafat have staked their political lives on making Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza a success.

"This operation has inflicted its destructive effects on both sides and I pray to God that the sane ones on both sides will be able to save it," said Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu Medeen. "Although I believe that this was perhaps a bullet that hit the peace process in the head not in the limbs," he said.

Israel sealed off the still-occupied West Bank on Monday after a bomb ripped through an Israeli bus in Jerusalem killing six people and wounding more than 100, the army said.

"Starting this morning the West Bank is closed until further notice. No workers will be allowed to leave the West Bank to come into Israel. In addition, workers from Gaza were prevented today from entering Israel," an army spokeswoman said.-Reuter