Four U.S. convoy guards killed in Gaza blast

Gaza - Four security guards were killed by an apparent roadside bomb attack against a convoy of U.S. diplomatic vehicles in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Israel Radio reported.

The convoy included officials from U.S. Middle East envoy John Wolf's office and from the CIA, the radio said, but added that Wolf was not in the convoy at the time of the blast.

A silver Cherokee jeep used by American diplomats was completely destroyed by the blast, which left a crater from what appeared to be a roadside bomb that sprayed blood and wreckage meters away.

"I was standing by the side of the road when a convey led by a Palestinian police car drove by. It was followed by two foreign jeeps and at the back there was another Palestinian police car," a witness, Khaled Abu Nour, told Reuters.

"There was an explosion and one of the two jeeps blew up and was torn apart. We saw on the ground three people dead. They looked like they were foreigners....a fourth was badly wounded."

He said U.S. officials whisked the dead and the wounded person away, presumably to Israel. Israel Radio and security officials said four people were killed.

Their nationalities were not immediately known though the radio said they were security guards working for the Americans.

The incident occurred in the Gaza Strip about two kilometers (1.2 miles) south of the Erez Crossing to Israel.

A U.S. embassy spokesman confirmed that a U.S. vehicle had been hit by an explosion in the Gaza Strip. He said the car was "a security contractors car, it was not an embassy vehicle per se."

Hospital workers bundled up body parts in a bedsheet. A black shoe was seen lying on the ground.

A U.S.-backed "road map" for peace has been badly battered by tit-for-tat violence in recent months. -- Reuters

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