Another Palestinian Bulldozer Attack in Jerusalem

Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:01:08 am PST

Another Palestinian ran amok with a bulldozer (actually a front loader) in Jerusalem today, near the hotel where Barack Obama plans to stay: Sixteen wounded in copycat bulldozer attack in Jerusalem.

Sixteen people were wounded, one of them moderately, as a bulldozer driver went on a rampage in central Jerusalem Tuesday afternoon in an apparent attempt to recreate the terror attack in the capital earlier this month.

The vehicle reportedly left a construction site near the Yemin Moshe neighborhood and set off towards Liberty Bell Park (Gan Hapa’amon), near the corner of Keren Hayesod and King David streets. It drove a distance of approximately 160 meters, attempting to overturn a bus and crashing into four other vehicles - one of which it flipped over. The man was then shot dead by a civilian and a border policeman.

The wounded were evacuated to hospitals in the capital. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police sealed off possible escape routes into east Jerusalem, and were searching for two suspects who fled the scene.

The attack took place in a busy part of downtown Jerusalem, several hundred meters from the luxury hotel where US presidential candidate Barack Obama is supposed to stay Tuesday night as he kicks off a visit to Israel.

The bus that was hit, No. 13, belonged to the same line of the bus that was overturned in the previous attack.

“I was driving on the main road when the (construction vehicle) hit me in the rear, on the right hand side,” the bus driver, who was not identified, told Channel 10 TV.

“After I passed him he turned round, made a U-turn and rammed the windows twice with the shovel. The third time he aimed for my head, he came up to my window and I swerved to the right, otherwise I would have gone to meet my maker,” he said.

Witness Moshe Shimshi said that the bulldozer driver, who was wearing a large, white skullcap commonly worn by religious Muslims, slammed into the side of the bus, then sped away and went for a car.