2 killed in criminal car bombing in Israel

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RISHON LEZION, Israel, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Two people were killed in a car explosion in Rishon Lezion in what Israel police described as a settling of accounts by criminal elements.

The identities of the two were not released. Police sealed off the area and began combing the site for evidence. Several suspects were arrested, Maariv said. The newspaper said the head of one of the mobs fighting for control of the eastern and western parts of the city lives in a building near the blast site.

Police also collected footage from street surveillance cameras, the newspaper said. Police have not ruled out the possibility the blast was the result of a "work accident" because the two occupants of the car sat separately, one in the front and the other in the back seat, the paper said.

The incident occurred Thursday not far from where three people were killed in disputes between mafia clans seeking to take control of the area, Maariv said.