Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Another Bomb Attack Hits Jerusalem

Aired March 22, 2002 - 12:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Yesterday, of course, it was the news of the day. A fatal attack in Jerusalem claimed by a group linked to Arafat's Fatah movement. With more on the story and the fallout today in Jerusalem, here's Mike Hanna.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: A sadly familiar scene, the aftermath of yet another bomb attack in Jerusalem. Killed here, three Israelis, a dozen wounded. Also dead on the scene, the man who strapped explosives to his body, packing in nails and steel nuts to cause the maximum amount of injury. His name, Muhammad Shahayka, a 22-year-old Palestinian policeman.

Among members of his family in the West Bank village of Talooza, no sympathy expressed for those killed and wounded.

"I'm proud of my son," says his father, flanked by members of the Al Aqsa Brigades of which Shahayka was a member. The Brigades, an armed offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

"We are willing to give more martyrs in order to defeat injustice and oppression," says an Al Aqsa man. "Don't cry, don't cry," another tells the family.

"I was expecting that he would become a martyr," says Shahayka's mother.

And the statement no surprise. For even as the wounded were being treated after the bomb blast in Jerusalem, details were emerging that Shahayka had long planned a terror attack. These pictures of him planning a suicide mission were taken in February. Shortly afterwards, Palestinian security forces, having heard of his intention, arrested him.

Israeli security officials say they were informed of Shahayka's arrest and agreed that he be transferred to a prison in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority said he would be more secure. But during the massive military offensive by Israeli forces in Ramallah earlier this month, Shahayka was allowed to go free. This fact confirmed by Palestinian security sources, who contend that he was not safe in the prison during the Israeli siege.

Once again at liberty, Shahayka evaded the Israeli forces and began planning another attack. This a result, more Israeli deaths, more Israelis injured, more evidence, says Israel, that the Palestinian authority must bear direct responsibility for acts of terror. Palestinians say, in this case, an attack Israel helped bring upon itself.

Mike Hanna, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com