On June 14th an article appeared on the ‘Leeds & West Yorkshire’ page of the BBC News website under the headline “Dewsbury teenager is ‘UK’s youngest ever suicide bomber’“. The report includes the following insert.
Of course Abdul Waheed Majid was not “the first British man to carry out a suicide bombing” at all. Eleven years before that two British men carried out a terror attack in Tel Aviv.
“On April 30, 2003, a suicide terrorist blew himself up at the entrance to Mike’s Place, a pub/cafe on the Tel Aviv promenade. Three civilians were murdered, and over 50 were wounded in the attack.
The attack was perpetrated by Asif Muhammad Hanif, 22, a British citizen.
A second British citizen, Omar Khan Sharif, 27, married, a resident of Derby, who was also due to have perpetrated a suicide attack, fled the scene. Khan Sharif attempted to detonate the bomb in his possession but the bomb failed to explode. He fled the scene after discarding the bomb. It cannot be ruled out that he was injured by the explosion of the detonator. During his flight, Khan Sharif struggled with a security guard at the David Intercontinental Hotel as he tried to snatch the latter’s ID. Khan Sharif’s body was positively identified on May 19, 2003, after having washed ashore on the Tel Aviv beachfront on May 12.”
The following day – June 15th – that article was replaced by another one titled “Dewsbury ‘in shock over UK’s youngest suicide bomber’” which appeared at several locations on the BBC News website, including its Middle East page, UK page, England page and Leeds & West Yorkshire page. That article too includes an insert titled “The Britons taking terror overseas”, although its wording has been slightly altered.
Nevertheless, the June 14th article remains available to the public online and hence is in need of correction.
