A massive attempted car bombing attack was averted at Haifa's Lev Hamifratz mall Saturday night, due to a malfunction of one of several explosive devices hidden in a parked car and thanks to an alert mall employee who reported hearing an explosion.
The Jerusalem Post reports on the
car bombing attempt:
Police sappers... dispatched to scan the area.... found a partially exploded bomb in the trunk of a white Subaru car which was parked outside the shopping center.
A further search of the vehicle uncovered several more unexploded bombs, which were neutralized by the sappers. No one was injured.
It was not immediately clear how the vehicle managed to get past the security checks at the mall entrance. The car was registered to a woman who lives in Jerusalem, but police would not release her identity. Northern District head Cmdr. Shimon Koren told Army Radio on Sunday morning that the vehicle had been stolen.
Police immediately moved to evacuate the mall, which was filled with shoppers, and sealed off the area.
The name of the vehicle owner was not revealed although
Israel National News reports:
The car in which the explosives were found was registered to a woman who lives in eastern Jerusalem, police said.
Northern District Commander Shimon Koren said that “the background of the incident is almost certainly hostile terrorism. We see no signs of anything else.”
The Jerusalem Post report continues:
Northern Police spokesman Moshe Weitzman told... that "dozens of kilograms of explosives" were uncovered in the car.
The 'Free Galilee' terror group has claimed responsibility for an attempted car bombing attack...
The mall and the surrounding area were reopened on Sunday morning.
In subsequent reports,
police reported that the license plate on the auto in which the device was planted was a fake and
Prime Minister Olmert opened Sunday's cabinet meeting by claiming that the security services estimate "that the car bomb no doubt came from Judea and Samaria."
