by Hazel Ward
QALANDIYA, West Bank Aug 11 (AFP) - Two Palestinians were killed and another 18 people wounded as a roadside bomb blew up Wednesday near an Israeli military checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, medical and security sources said.
Ayad Abed Rabbo, 33, died of his injuries in a Jerusalem hospital, medics said, while 60-year-old Salah Abu Sneini died on the spot. Twelve other Palestinians were wounded along with six Israeli border guards.
The blast occurred near a mobile army checkpoint some 200 metres (yards) from the Qalandia fixed checkpoint, which lies just to the north of Jerusalem.
Hospital sources in the West Bank city of Ramallah said a two-year-old child was in critical condition.
Israeli police and military sources initially said they suspected the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or by a car bomb, but police later said it was a roadside bomb detonated by remote control.
The US State Department condemned the bombing, calling it yet another sign the Palestinians needed to act immediately to rein in violence.
"We condemn this act of terror in Jerusalem," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. "In our view, this once again underscores the need for the Palestinian leadership to take immediate and credible steps to end terror and violence.
Security sources told AFP it appeared the militant carrying the bomb had seen the border police approaching, had quickly left the device on the ground next to a taxi, then detonated it by remote control when they neared the spot.
Kleiman earlier said the blast occurred as three border policemen neared a stationary car at the impromptu checkpoint, which was set up after intelligence warnings that a suicide bomber was heading for Jerusalem, he said.
At the time, dozens of Palestinian taxi-drivers were sitting in their vehicles at a makeshift rank waiting for passengers coming through the main Qalandia checkpoint.
Luay Hadad, a 25-year-old driver from the Silwan suburb of east Jerusalem, said he was just sitting in his cab when the blast occurred.
"I was sitting in my taxi about 20 meters (yards) away, watching the soldiers check the cars," he told AFP.
"Suddenly there was a huge bang and I saw fire shoot up in the air. I was blown back by the force. I jumped out of my car and fled," he said. "I was terrified."
The blast took place just 20 metres (yards) from the end of a trench being dug between A-Ram and Qalandia ahead of the construction of another section of Israel's controversial West Bank barrier.
Work on the Qalandia section of the barrier, which Israel says is crucial for stopping the infiltration of suicide bombers, was recently stopped after an Israeli supreme court ruling, Kleiman said.
"The explosion occurred in an area where the fence was supposed to be erected but work was stopped by a court order several weeks ago," he said.
The attack was claimed by the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement.
"We have done this in response to the genocide the Israeli authorities are perpetrating in the Gaza Strip and West Bank," Al-Aqsa militant Zakaria Zubeidi told AFP by telephone.
Zubeidi, who heads up the group in the Jenin area, also said the device was detonated by remote-control.
Shortly after the blast, a 16-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern West Bank town of Nablus.
The army said soldiers "fired on a terrorist who threw a petrol bomb in their direction".
In the Gaza Strip, the army pulled out of Khan Yunis refugee camp in the south of the territory after an overnight offensive in which at least 15 Palestinians were wounded in an air strike, three of them critically.
Palestinian sources said 10 houses were demolished, although the Israelis said only two inhabited buildings were destroyed.