Daily Alert Archives

Witness Describes Bus Bombing in Professor's Terrorism Trial

(AP/Newsday) Mitch Stacy - Kesari Ruza, testifying Thursday in the federal terrorism conspiracy trial of fired university professor Sami Al-Arian, described how she, along with her friend Alisa Flatow of New Jersey, and another American student boarded a bus heading for a beach resort on the Gaza Strip on April 9, 1995. At Kfar Darom, a suicide bomber drove a van loaded with explosives into the bus. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the group Al-Arian is accused of supporting, later claimed responsibility. The 20-year-old Flatow suffered a severe head injury and died the next day at a Jerusalem hospital. Seven other people also perished and 40 were injured. Jurors, some of whom have nodded off during mostly mundane testimony so far in the trial, intently listened to the witnesses and watched a 10-minute amateur video shot at the scene of the bus bombing.
2005-06-17 00:00:00
Full Article