Nine arrested after Jerusalem truck attacker kills four soldiers

JERUSALEM, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Police arrested nine suspects after a truck struck Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, killing four and injuring 16, a police spokesman said.

The truck plowed through a group of soldiers disembarking from a bus Sunday, then reversed and ran them down again. Three of the injured were in serious condition, including one, a woman, in a coma. Police shot at the truck until it stopped.

Leah Schrieber, a witness, told the newspaper Haaretz, "I heard screaming behind me. I turned around a saw the truck getting on the sidewalk. "Soldiers who were in the area started shooting at the truck. At first they couldn't kill him. He put the truck in reverse. At this point the youths screamed and the instructors told them to hide behind the stone walls. After the assailant was incapacitated, paramedics arrived."

Fadi Qunbar, 28, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was the driver of the truck; he and five of his relatives were among those arrested, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Newsweek.

Police Chief Roni Alsheich referred to the incident as a terror attack. The militant group Hamas, while disavowing any involvement, called it a "heroic operation resisting the Israeli occupation" of East Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site of the attack, saying, "All signs point to the attacker being a supporter of the Islamic State," without offering evidence. Referring to similar attacks in Europe in 2016, he added there may be a link between them, "from France and Berlin and now Jerusalem."