Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Israel Searches for Militants Who Killed 8 in Bus Ambush
Mounting a massive manhunt for a group of Palestinians whose brazen daytime ambush led to the deaths of eight Israelis, Israeli troops clashed early today with the suspected gunmen. Israeli military officials said one of their officers and one Palestinian gunman was killed in the firefight.

Three Israeli soldiers were injured in the clash, one of them seriously.

Officials said the gunfight occurred about 5:30 a.m. today, just about dawn, in a dry river bed near this settlement where Palestinian gunmen carried out Wednesday's ambush attack on a busload of Israelis.

Israeli troops spent the day and into the early morning combing the rocky hills of the West Bank for the gunmen who carried about the ambush. Officials said they finally tracked them down near the dry river bed where the firefight occurred.

The Associated Press identified the Israeli officer who was killed in the gunfight as Lt. El'ad Grenadier, 21. The Palestinian was not identified. The other Palestinians escaped and the army was pressing the search for them.

Wednesday's attack was the first lethal assault on Israeli civilians in nearly a month, and it came despite curfews enforced by Israel in the seven Palestinian towns it has occupied and surrounded in an effort to avert such attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/17/international/middleeast/17CND-MIDE.html

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