<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-04-10/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-147171.asp" target="_blank">HERE</a>
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| 13 Slain by Boy Bomber He lured Israeli soldiers to their deaths, says ex-PM By CORKY SIEMASZKO Daily News Staff Writer Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday when they were lured into an ambush by a baby suicide bomber, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night. Israeli soldiers at checkpoint outside Jenin on the West Bank after fatal ambush. "You know how they were killed?" he told Fox News Channel. "A 10-year-old boy was strapped with explosives and sent by [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat's goons to explode. This is the kind of monstrosity we're dealing with." Netanyahu said that when the soldiers spotted the boy in the ruins of a Jenin refugee camp, they chased him into an alley but did not shoot at him. Once in the alley, the boy detonated a bomb that killed three soldiers and sparked a series of explosions that sent a building crashing down on them, he said. Then, Palestinian snipers opened fire from a nearby rooftop in the refugee camp, killing 10 more soldiers and leaving nearly a dozen wounded in the ruins. Netanyahu later backed off on the boy's age in an interview on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" show. 'Don't Know, Frankly' "This was the briefing I took from one of the central commanders there," he said when told U.S. officials couldn't confirm the report. "I don't know, frankly, because I inquired as well whether it was a 10-year-old or a 14-year-old or a 13-year-old." Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey confirmed "there was a suicide bomber. ... We found remains of his body ... on the wall around the area of the clash." Other Israeli sources with close ties to the military confirmed that a boy lured the soldiers to their deaths. The deadliest blow against the Israeli armed forces in 18 months of fighting was struck just two hours after President Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's partial military withdrawal from two West Bank towns "not at all enough." But after the ambush in Jenin, Sharon vowed to stick to his own timetable. "We are continuing ... until we will fulfill the decision of the cabinet that calls for the destruction of the infrastructure of the terror groups," Sharon said in a radio address to his nation. "This is a battle for survival of the Jewish people, for survival of the State of Israel." It was just after 8 a.m. and the reservists were moving cautiously through streets strewn with the bodies of more than 150 Palestinian fighters. Reservist Ron Drori, 30, who was wounded in the attack, said he never saw what hit them. "The commander checked if we could enter the three houses and take them over, and decided that it was too dangerous," Drori said. "We went into a narrow alley. Suddenly, a device exploded between the soldiers. I don't know where it came from. "Immediately, there was another bomb. Almost immediately, they started firing on us from all directions." Just a few yards away from where Drori lay sprawled in his own blood, Palestinian snipers were firing at his friends. Ten soldiers died in the fusillade, and about a dozen were wounded — seven critically — before the shooting stopped. "Despite the loss, we'll continue until we conquer this camp," said Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, chief of Israel's Central Command. Israeli forces also raided the town of Dura, south of Hebron, leveling two security compounds, Palestinian officials said. Two Palestinians were killed in gun battles, they said. All but three of the 25 Israeli soldiers killed during the current Operation Defensive Wall have died in the siege of the sprawling Jenin camp, which has a high number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. 'Palestinian Masada' While hundreds of fighters have surrendered, hard-core militants have vowed to turn Jenin into a "Palestinian Masada," the Israelis said, referring to the Jewish last stand against Roman occupiers from A.D. 66 to 73. Early today four Katyusha rockets hit the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said, as fighting with Lebanese guerrillas continued to heat up. There were no early reports of injuries. Lebanese guerrillas fired missiles and machine guns at Israeli troops along the border yesterday. |
