At least three people were killed and 35 others were injured, five seriously, in a suicide bombing occurred at a pub near the US embassy in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, local police said.
The bombing, occurred at around 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning at the entrance to a pub named Mike's Place. The pub is located near the United States embassy on Tel Aviv's beachfront and usually is popular with tourists.
The embassy itself was not damaged in the blast, local police source said.
Local Army Radio cited eyewitnesses as saying that the explosives was set off right after the security guard on the door jumped on the suicide bomber and prevented him or her from entering the pub.
This was the first suicide bombing inside Israel for weeks and it occurred just hours after the Palestinian Legislative Council approved the new cabinet proposed by new Palestinian premier Abu Mazen.
In a speech made Tuesday to a Palestinian Legislative Council session convened in Ramallah for a confidence vote on his new cabinet, Abu Mazen pledged to control Palestinian militant groups and confiscate illegal weapons, however, Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said they would not give up their armed struggles.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2003)
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