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Suicide Explosion in Northern Israel

Aired September 18, 2002 - 10:12   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: More now on that breaking story we are following for you, an explosion in northern Israel. A suicide bomber apparently blew himself up at a bus stop in northern Israel, and our Mike Hanna is on the telephone with us now, or actually you are joining us now to give us the latest details on what is happening there?
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, yes indeed, police say, Israeli police say, that there has been an explosion in the north of Israel. They are attributing the cause of the blast to a suicide bomber.

Now, at this stage, all police are saying is that there are a number of people wounded. The only fatality confirmed is that of the man who police say was carrying or in some way had explosives attached to his body,

So what we have at the moment is news of an explosion, a number of people injured according to Israeli police, one person dead, and that person, say police, is the man who set off an explosion device. This is the first such attack in well over five weeks, the last suicide bombing attack in Israel was way back on August 4th, a long period of time of which no attacks took place, and Israeli authorities say they intercepted a number of those attempt to go carry out attacks on Israeli civilian targets, but this is the first attack since August 4th, the situation, what we have at the moment, and this has all happened within the last few minutes.

Police confirming the explosion north of Israel near the Arab- Israeli town of Au-El Prom. This very close to the West Bank, the town of Jenin, and in that explosion, say police, there have been a number of people wounded. The only fatality confirmed at this stage, that man who police say was the suicide bomber -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mike, thank you very much -- Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's try to get some more information on this. We are joined right now on the telephone by Gil Kleiman, who is the Israeli police spokesman, joining us on the telephone from Jerusalem. Can you tell us any more information right now?

GIL KLEIMAN, ISRAELI POLICE SPOKESMAN: We had an explosion, the suicide bomber blew up. We have wounded on the scene in the northern area of Israel. This third attack today, we had a murder incident of a 67-year-old gentleman who was murdered, body was found burned in Jerusalem, in the area of Jerusalem. We had a shooting incident about two hours ago. We also had wounded -- this is the first suicide bombing in a while.

HARRIS: I am sorry, I did not mean to cut you off there. You said this is the third that that you -- this is the third terror incident today.

KLEIMAN: We had a 70-year-old man who has murdered when he walked by construction equipment, and his body was found burned in the morning. He was killed and his body was burnt. We had another incident, a shooting incident, about two hours ago, and about 15 minutes ago, we had a suicide bombing up in the northern part of Israel. We do have wounded, but nothing has been confirmed yet with regards to what this situation and what this status is.

HARRIS: All right. I just want to make sure that we get all of the information clear here. On the other two incidents that you report here, can you give us the casualty situation in those incidents?

KLEIMAN: Like I said, in the morning, in the early hours of the morning, a person has been missing since yesterday. His body was found. He's a 67-year-old gentleman, like I said, walking by construction equipment. His body was found burned, to be dead and burned, with signs of violence on his body. And about two hours ago, we had another shooting incident, which we've had a drive-by shooting incident, an apparent drive-by shooting incident, in which we also had dead and two wounded.

Right now, with what's going on with the suicide bombings up north, we know we have wounded, but the actual status -- this only happened about 15 minutes ago, is still unclear.

MOOS: How about the extent of the damage of that bombing incident this morning?

KLEIMAN: Well, like I said, it's a suicide bombing. Bombings tend to cause a lot of serious amount of damage. As far as the exact location, we know, but exactly what happened there is unclear yet. We are talking all of about 15 minutes ago, and this situation is still a little bit unclear.

MOOS: We understand. Gil Kleiman, of the Israeli police. Thank you very much. We appreciate the information

KLEIMAN: OK.

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Aired September 18, 2002 - 10:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: More now on that breaking story we are following for you, an explosion in northern Israel. A suicide bomber apparently blew himself up at a bus stop in northern Israel, and our Mike Hanna is on the telephone with us now, or actually you are joining us now to give us the latest details on what is happening there?
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, yes indeed, police say, Israeli police say, that there has been an explosion in the north of Israel. They are attributing the cause of the blast to a suicide bomber.

Now, at this stage, all police are saying is that there are a number of people wounded. The only fatality confirmed is that of the man who police say was carrying or in some way had explosives attached to his body,

So what we have at the moment is news of an explosion, a number of people injured according to Israeli police, one person dead, and that person, say police, is the man who set off an explosion device. This is the first such attack in well over five weeks, the last suicide bombing attack in Israel was way back on August 4th, a long period of time of which no attacks took place, and Israeli authorities say they intercepted a number of those attempt to go carry out attacks on Israeli civilian targets, but this is the first attack since August 4th, the situation, what we have at the moment, and this has all happened within the last few minutes.

Police confirming the explosion north of Israel near the Arab- Israeli town of Au-El Prom. This very close to the West Bank, the town of Jenin, and in that explosion, say police, there have been a number of people wounded. The only fatality confirmed at this stage, that man who police say was the suicide bomber -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mike, thank you very much -- Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's try to get some more information on this. We are joined right now on the telephone by Gil Kleiman, who is the Israeli police spokesman, joining us on the telephone from Jerusalem. Can you tell us any more information right now?

GIL KLEIMAN, ISRAELI POLICE SPOKESMAN: We had an explosion, the suicide bomber blew up. We have wounded on the scene in the northern area of Israel. This third attack today, we had a murder incident of a 67-year-old gentleman who was murdered, body was found burned in Jerusalem, in the area of Jerusalem. We had a shooting incident about two hours ago. We also had wounded -- this is the first suicide bombing in a while.

HARRIS: I am sorry, I did not mean to cut you off there. You said this is the third that that you -- this is the third terror incident today.

KLEIMAN: We had a 70-year-old man who has murdered when he walked by construction equipment, and his body was found burned in the morning. He was killed and his body was burnt. We had another incident, a shooting incident, about two hours ago, and about 15 minutes ago, we had a suicide bombing up in the northern part of Israel. We do have wounded, but nothing has been confirmed yet with regards to what this situation and what this status is.

HARRIS: All right. I just want to make sure that we get all of the information clear here. On the other two incidents that you report here, can you give us the casualty situation in those incidents?

KLEIMAN: Like I said, in the morning, in the early hours of the morning, a person has been missing since yesterday. His body was found. He's a 67-year-old gentleman, like I said, walking by construction equipment. His body was found burned, to be dead and burned, with signs of violence on his body. And about two hours ago, we had another shooting incident, which we've had a drive-by shooting incident, an apparent drive-by shooting incident, in which we also had dead and two wounded.

Right now, with what's going on with the suicide bombings up north, we know we have wounded, but the actual status -- this only happened about 15 minutes ago, is still unclear.

MOOS: How about the extent of the damage of that bombing incident this morning?

KLEIMAN: Well, like I said, it's a suicide bombing. Bombings tend to cause a lot of serious amount of damage. As far as the exact location, we know, but exactly what happened there is unclear yet. We are talking all of about 15 minutes ago, and this situation is still a little bit unclear.

MOOS: We understand. Gil Kleiman, of the Israeli police. Thank you very much. We appreciate the information

KLEIMAN: OK.

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