Nation & world briefing
Tel Aviv suicide attacks leave 22 dead
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
TEL AVIV, Israel — Two suicide bombers
blew themselves up within seconds of each
other Sunday evening, killing themselves
and at least 22 people, and injuring more
than 100 others in a neighborhood packed
with foreign workers.
The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a group
linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement,
claimed responsibility for the attacks. It
identified the suicide bombers as two of its
members: Murad Abdul Rahman Khulafa,
21, and Smaer Immad Nori, 19, both
of Nablus.
Only hours after the Tel Aviv explosions,
Israeli Apache helicopters bombed sites in
Gaza City, hitting two Palestinian Authority
offices and a building in the market, Israel
State Radio reported. Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon had assembled his security cab
inet before the Gaza strike, and they contin
ued to meet late into the night.
Sunday’s suicide bombings were the worst
attacks since a June bus bombing in
Jerusalem killed 19 passengers and trig
gered Israel’s reoccupation of most West
Bank towns in an attempt to prevent such
suicide bombings.
The Palestinian Authority strongly de
nounced the attacks and condemned the
killing of all civilians, whether Israelis or
Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority
promised to punish those involved.
Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said
those responsible are “serving the Sharon
electoral campaign.” Israeli elections are
scheduled later this month, and political
observers say suicide bombings boost the
popularity of hard-line candidates who ad
vocate strong military action against the
Palestinians.
Israeli officials insisted that regardless of
which Palestinian faction carried out the at
tack, Arafat is to blame.
“Terrorists have the infrastructure to
commit these attacks because the Palestin
ian Authority gives it to them,” said David
Saranga, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs
spokesman. “These terrorists have docu
ments; these terrorists have explosives;
these terrorists have monetary support.”
President Bush quickly condemned Sun
day’s attacks “in the strongest possible
terms,” White House spokeswoman Claire
Buchan said. “There are those who want to
derail the peace process. But the president
will not be deterred. Innocent people have a
right to live in safety.”
In the neighborhood of the Old Central
Bus Station, onlookers watched in quiet dis
belief as rescue workers and police dogs
searched for victims late into Sunday night.
According to Israeli police, one bomber
blew himself up in front of a Chinese restau
rant on a street lined with cafes and shops;
the other did so seconds later in front of a
bus stop 200 yards away. Survivors fled the
neighborhood that was streaked with blood
and littered with glass.
The blasts were so strong that people in
side houses and shops were injured. The
bombers, who blew up about 200 yards
apart, each were wearing 33 pounds of ex
plosives, according to Israel State Radio.
Police were searching Sunday night for a
black Honda Civic that was seen speeding
away from the scene of the attack toward
the West Bank.
©2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services. Correspondents Cliff Churgin in Tel Aviv
and Mohammed Najib in Ramallah contributed
to this report
News briefs
Water diversion caused
fish die-off, report says
The dramatic die-off of 33,000
salmon last fall along the Klamath
River in Northern California was
directly caused by the Bush ad
ministration’s decision to pump
extra water from the river to farm
ers, biologists from the California
Department of Fish and Game
have concluded.
The environmental disaster in
September left one of the state’s
major rivers stacked with rotting
salmon, some up to three feet
long, from the mouth of the Kla
math River near Crescent City to
36 miles upstream. It was the
largest die-off of adult salmon ever
recorded in the West.
Seeking to control a political
embarrassment, the Bush adminis
tration said at the time that not
enough science was available to
conclude what killed the fish.
The 63-page report, issued late
Friday night, marks the first offi
cial documentation suggesting
causes for the die-off. It concludes
that fall Chinook salmon, steel
head trout and endangered coho
salmon died because the U.S. De
partment of Interior diverted so
much of the river’s water to farm
ing interests in 2002 that the fish
crowded tightly as they returned
to spawn from the ocean and fell
prey to disease. The die-off killed
25 percent of the river’s fall Chi
nook run, the report found.
State biologists also concluded
that unless the federal government
leaves more water in the river
starting in March “there is a sub
stantial risk of future fish kills.”
—Paul Rogers, Knight Ridder
Newspapers (KRT)
California COP official
apologizes for remarks
Bill Back, a candidate in next
month’s election for the chairman
ship of the California Republican
Party, has issued a statement apol
ogizing for distributing an article
that suggested the country might
be better off, in everything from
race relations to international af
fairs to morality, had the South
won the Civil War.
Excerpts of the article, e-mailed
to party members in the state in a
1999 newsletter produced by
Back, were printed Friday in news
paper articles, bringing the specter
of the scandal that crippled U.S.
Senator Trent Lott to the Califor
nia GOP.
“I just don’t have any idea what
Mr. Back was thinking about when
it was sent out,” said Assembly Re
publican Leader Dave Cox, refer
ring to the article in the newsletter.
At the same time, Cox said that
he does not believe Back, current
ly state GOP vice chairman, is a
racist and that he still backs him
in the race for the party chairman
ship against Duf Sundheim, a Sili
con Valley attorney and a more
moderate Republican.
In his statement, Back, a conser
vative Bush ally, said the newslet
ter, which he distributed when he
was the party’s vice chairman for
the northern region, was a forum
for diverse political opinions. Re
garding the controversial article, a
reproduced essay written by
William S. Lind of the conservative
Free Congress Foundation, Back
said, “I believe his conclusions and
analysis are fundamentally incor
rect and he mentioned nothing
about how repugnant slavery was
and its impact on America.”
But Shannon Reeves of Oak
land, state party secretary and the
only African-American member of
the state GOP executive commit
tee, was skeptical of Back’s expla
nation, asking why Back didn’t say
he disagreed with the article in his
editor’s note in the newsletter.
“No one distributes their own of
ficial newsletter with materials with
which he disagrees,” said Reeves,
“unless they refer to the article that
they disagree with in the body of
their direct comments.”
— Elise Banducci, Knight Ridder
Newspapers (KRT)
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