At least seven are dead and another 40 injured after a "terror squad" infiltrated Israel and attacked soldiers, a passenger bus and a vehicle near the border with Egypt, an Israeli military spokesman said. "This is a combined terrorist attack against Israelis," said Israeli military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich.
Israel responded to the attacks with an airstrike on a house in Gaza. Five militants, including one known to be manufacturing rockets and a girl were killed in the strike. But a senior Israeli defense official says gunfire is continuing into the evening from both sides of the Israel-Egypt border.
The attacks on Israelis began at midday and lasted for three hours, beginning when gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus near the border.
Israel Radio said a vehicle had followed the bus, and two to three gunmen got out and opened automatic weapons fire.
TV footage showed the bus pulled over by a red rocky cliff. Windows and a door of the bus were shattered, and soldiers were patrolling the area on foot. Inside the bus, seats were stained with blood and luggage littered the aisle.
The military spokesman said a roadside bomb was then detonated when a military patrol arrived at the scene of the bus attack and drove over the device. Gunmen then launched an anti-tank missile at another vehicle, injuring passengers inside.
They came close together in time and location and appeared coordinated. Israeli security forces said they tracked down some of the assailants and killed seven in a gunbattle, military spokesman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said. Defense officials said three of the bodies were booby-trapped. There was no immediate word on whether any of the attackers were captured alive or exactly how many in all were involved.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the violence, saying it underscores the situation along the Israeli-Egyptian border.
"The United States condemns today's attacks in southern Israel and all acts of terrorism in the strongest terms," she said in a statement. "These brutal and cowardly attacks appear to be premeditated acts of terrorism against innocent civilians. Our deepest condolences go out to the victims, their families and loved ones."
The IDF suspects that the gunmen infiltrated Israel through the Egyptian border.
"The incident underscores the weak Egyptian hold on Sinai and the broadening of the activities of terrorists," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement. "The real source of the terror is in Gaza and we will act against them with full force and determination."
But in Egypt, a senior security official denied that the attackers crossed into Israel from the Sinai Peninsula or that the buses were fired at from inside Egyptian territory.
"The border is heavily guarded," said the Sinai-based official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Egypt has been conducting raids on Al Qaeda-inspired militants in Sinai who have taken advantage of the security vacuum in the area following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak's in February to launch increasingly brazen attacks on police patrols and a key pipeline that carries natural gas to Jordan and Israel.
On Monday, troops backed by armored vehicles carried out five raids in el-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, security officials said. In one location, they clashed with gunmen, killing one, and arrested four others.
The five included four Egyptians from outside the Sinai and one Palestinian from Gaza who belongs to the Islamic Jihad militant faction, the officials said.
All five had broken out of Egyptian prisons during the chaos surrounding the country's uprising and fled to the northern Sinai, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Security forces also arrested seven other people Monday who had been in prison on criminal charges and fled during the uprising.
No comments:
Post a Comment