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Jerrold Kessel: Beachfront cafe a crime scene
TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- A security guard at a beachfront cafe blocked a suicide bomber from entering the establishment early Wednesday, but the bomber blew himself up at the cafe's door, the city's police chief said. At least three people were killed in addition to the bomber, authorities said. CNN anchor Paula Zahn discussed details from the scene of the attack with CNN correspondent Jerrold Kessel. ZAHN: An explosion at a seaside cafe in Tel Aviv ... happened just hours after Abu Mazen was confirmed as the first Palestinian prime minister. Our Jerrold Kessel is now on the scene and has the very latest from there -- Jerrold. KESSEL: It's a place called Mike's Place. Blues by the Beach, it says on the sign over this beachside cafe-bar. And there was a night's entertainment here of live music. [It was] just about 1 o'clock in the morning, that's a couple of hours ago, when the bomber tried to get into the small cafe by the beachside on this Tel Aviv promenade [and was] stopped by a security guard at the entrance. The blast went off then. [It was] not clear whether, how and when the suicide bomber [set the bomb] off, but ... it seems he killed three people other than himself and wounded some 40. And now on the scene, ... forensic experts get to work, and alongside them, the men in the green luminous jackets, who are a special detail of religious volunteers picking up body parts and pieces of skin and so forth and bits of blood that are required by Jewish custom to be buried along with the dead, and treating that with the utmost respect as the police go about their duty to make sure there are no other bombs in the area, unexploded devices. There are several cars that have been damaged here on the promenade, on the edge of the promenade, one with the alarm going off loudly, you can probably hear in the background at the moment. Police [are] wary that perhaps there might be another bomb on hand, and [are] trying to keep away the crowd of onlookers. The crowd is fairly calm and not animated, but angry nonetheless. ZAHN: Has anybody claimed responsibility yet for this bombing? KESSEL: We haven't as yet heard of any claim of responsibility, but, of course, that will be keenly watched to see if any of the militant Palestinian groups do come out to claim responsibility. It's been mixed over the two years and more of suicide bombings and other such attacks. On some occasions, the groups do come out and claim responsibility, and then others choose to keep the investigators and others in the dark as to who might have done so. This will be particularly interesting, of course, because it comes just on the very day that the new Palestinian government was confirmed by the Palestinian parliament, under Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen, as he's also more generally known, the first Palestinian prime minister. Whether anybody claims responsibility or not, certainly the timing is a challenge to Abu Mazan, because he delivered a very forceful speech today in the Palestinian parliament when he asked for approval for his new government. He spoke out very, very forcefully against terror, said not only was it against Palestinian interests, as many have said in the Palestinian leadership in the past, but also that it was morally not a favorable thing to do. And he said he would come to grips with what he called the chaos of ... unauthorized weapons in the Palestinian community, and that he was throwing down the gauntlet to the militant groups. Whether this is a gauntlet thrown back to them, we shall see.
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