Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Jerusalem: 15 hurt as East Jerusalem drives car into crowd of soldiers

The bulldozer rampage in July has introduced a new variety of suicide attack for the jihadist seeking to "slay and be slain" for the Qur'an's promise of paradise (9:111). "15 wounded in terror attack at busy Jerusalem intersection," by Etgar Lefkovits and Shelly Paz for the Jerusalem Post, September 22: An Arab resident of east Jerusalem rammed his vehicle into a group of soldiers at a central Jerusalem thoroughfare late Monday night, wounding fifteen people, before being shot dead by an off-duty IDF officer, police and rescue officials said.

It was the third such attack in the city in as many months.

The attack took place at the city's Kikar Tzahal near Jaffa Gate. Two of the casualties were in moderate condition, the rest were lightly hurt.

The assailant, who was driving a BMW, crashed into a group of off-duty soldiers on the sidewalk, where his car came to a grinding halt.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said that the attacker was shot dead "within seconds" by an off-duty IDF officer who was touring the city with his unit.

He added that there was no intelligence information ahead of the attack, but noted that Jerusalem was under heavy security alert due to Ramadan.

The city's police chief said that the lone attacker was an Arab resident of east Jerusalem.

The pedestrians wounded in the attack were rushed to Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem, Hadassah-University Hospital on Mount Scopus and the city's Sha'are Tzedek Hospital.

The attack comes after two back-to-back bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem in July which left three Israelis dead and dozens wounded.

No comments: