Fort Lauderdale (Florida), Sept 10: The White House has condemned two "vicious" suicide bombings against Israeli targets and piled pressure on the Palestinians to crack down on extremism. "We condemn these vicious acts in the strongest possible terms. Our condolences go to the families of the victims," national security spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday.
Without explicitly naming Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qorei, McCormack said the attacks showed that "it is important that the office of the prime minister and his cabinet have full authority to fight terror and crack down on corruption in the Palestinian areas."
The strikes "underscore the fact that fighting terror is crucial to efforts to make progress in bringing peace to the Middle East", said the spokesman, who called the attacks "an obstacle" to the creation of a Palestinian state.
McCormack spoke after a suicide bomber killed seven people and wounded some 40 others in a late-night attack in a cafe in west Jerusalem, just hours after a similar blast near an Israeli military base left eight soldiers dead.
US President George W. Bush, on a day-long fundraising trip here, learned of each attack shortly after it occurred from his National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
Bureau Report