OVER 100 CASUALTIES

Chronicle (Levin), 23 February 1948, Page 5

OVER 100 CASUALTIES

Reeeived Monday, 10.20 a.qi. PALESTINE, Feb. 22. There were weil over 10.0 casualties in the explosion ln the heart oi the Jewish ayea ot Jerusalem. Fires which followed were controllcd after fwo hoitrs, says a Government annovincement. So far, 41 dead have been extraeted from the wreckage and 6i injured taken to" hospital. An unofficial Arab, s.ource claimed that "speciai commando" Arabs, 'trained' abro'ad, had engineered the explosion. They added, "dynamite commandos" used a stol.en police armoured car and a truck. Manahim Bogni7 "commander in chief" of the irgun Zvai Leumi, a Jewish terrorist organisation, called on members tp "avenge immediately" afi Jews killed in the explosion. He appealed to world jewrj especialy American Zionists to. deCiare economic war on Britain. A Jewish source reported that B;ritish police were evacuating police stations in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem as a preeaution against Bogin's threat. The authorities have confined to barracks, all British police in Jerusalem, alerted British troops manning road blocks and army pjsts, apd s.everely tightened security precautipns o,n" Gover-nment buildings and army and police quarters. A Jewish agency spokesman said tlie agency reeeived word from .Arab sources that the Arabs were not connected with the explos.ion. He added that it was unlikely that such a quantity of explosive wouia be handled by private' individuais or groups.