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CNN Sunday Morning

Car Bombs Detonated in Jerusalem Deter Mideast Peace

Aired May 27, 2001 - 07:00   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour in the Middle East where a U.S. envoy is talking peace but a pair of car bombs earlier today may speak volumes. The separate attacks rocked downtown Jerusalem and underlined the efforts of the U.S. envoy, holding his first meetings today with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Jerusalem with more.

Hi Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Kyra.

Those bombs went off just eight-and-a-half hours between them. The first one at about 12:30 local time in an area of Jerusalem that is normally packed with young people going to bars and discos. This morning at 9:00 a.m., another blast went off on the Jappa Road, one of Jerusalem's main thoroughfares.

That bomb -- it was a car bomb. The car was packed with explosives, mortar shells, bullets as well as nails to maximize the causalities. However, there were no casualties -- no dead, at least. Around -- more than 20 people were treated for shock. Two others were treated for injuries caused by flying glass.

The police completely cordoned off the area because that car also contained explosives that were thrown over a huge area of the downtown -- of downtown Jerusalem and they spent hours trying to defuse those explosives. There was one controlled blast that rocked the area about an hour-and-a-half, two hours after that.

The blast this morning was claimed by the Islamic Jihad. Now this blast comes as U.S. Undersecretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, William Burns is in the Palestinian West Bank town of Ramallah where he's meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. And this afternoon he will meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, trying to move along a peace process that is definitely in very bad shape at the moment -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ben, before we let you go, another story that happened yesterday. How can we forget that videotape from the wedding reception where the floor caved in? What's the latest with regard to the investigation on that?

WEDEMAN: Well, the investigation is ongoing. Currently, nine people are in police custody, being questioned in relation to that. Those include -- those people include the owners, the contractors who built the building in the beginning, the man who designed the floor system that was in that building as well as the contractors who renovated the building three months ago. Apparently they knocked out some important supporting walls and columns, which may have led to the collapse of that.

Also, over the last two days, there have been more funerals for those who were -- who died in the collapse. And recently the Jerusalem Police Chief said that they were still trying to find out the whereabouts of one man who was not accounted for from that collapse -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Ben Wedeman thanks so much.

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