Blast near seaside restaurant kills three in Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV, Israel -- A suicide bombing destroyed a seaside restaurant near the U.S. Embassy early Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of others, officials said.

Witnesses said a guard apparently prevented the attacker from entering the building.

Police and rescue services said at least three people died, including the bomber, and 46 were wounded. Officials backed off their their earlier report of five dead, blaming the discrepancy on confusion caused by the violence.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the attack; however, the group Islamic Hamas recently pledged to continue its attacks on Israel.

The bomb blew the front off the restaurant and demolished walls, doors and furniture inside.

The owner of the restaurant, Gal Ganzman, his shirt covered with blood, said he was standing behind the bar when he heard the explosion. "I'm alive, I'm fine," he said. "One of the waitresses lost an arm but she's still alive. The boom was just outside the entrance. The security guard must have stopped him."

A witness identified only by his first name, Gil, told Army Radio that a security guard at the restaurant prevented the bomber from entering.

In a similar attack last Thursday, a security guard at a train station north of Tel Aviv stopped a bomber and was killed when the attacker set off his explosives.

The restaurant, called Mike's Place, is on Herbert Samuel Esplanade, a beachside walkway several miles long and a popular. U.S. Embassy is nearby, but was not damaged in the blast and was apparently not a target.

The bomb went off just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, when seafront restaurants and nightspots are often full of people. The well-known Mike's Place was featuring live music.

David Baker, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister's office, said that the attack was evidence that "Palestinian terrorism has not been reined in." He said that the "new Palestinian government must seize this opportunity to stop these terror attacks, and it must be done now."

On June 1, 2001, a suicide bomber blew himself off in front of a disco at the southern end of the walkway, killing 21 people, most of them teenagers, one of the bloodiest attacks in 31 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.