Trcop Train Blast Kills Eight As Underground Seeks Vengeance for Dead Extremists

One half-hour after last rites were recited this morning over the graves of Moshe Barazani-and Meir Feinstein, the Jewish underground launched a campaign of reprisals, blowing up a troop train on the Palestine-Egypt line, a mile outside of Rehovoth. Eight persons were killed and at least 41 injured.

The train was blasted by a huge land mine which was detonated from an orange grows adjoining the tracks. Shortly before the explosion, passing vehicles were halted by unknown men who warned them not to approach the tracks.

Preliminarv reports said that the dead included five soldiers, and three civilians, one of them a three-year-old child. Twenty-three soldiers and 18 civilians were injured, a number of them seriously. The scene of the explosion was strewn with the debris from the telescoped coaches, among which were severed limbs and bloodstained portions of human bodies. Rescue operations have begun, but they are hampered by the position of the wreck, which is situated on a narrow track cut out of the peak of a rocky promontory.

Police and troops reinforcements, accompanied by police dogs, attempted to pick up the track of the dynamiters in the orange grove, but were unsuccessful. Rehoveth and the vicinity was cordoned off for a time and hundreds of persons questioned.

JERUSALEM STILL UNDER DUSK-TO-DAWN CURFEW; TEL AVIV FACES RESTRICTIONS

Jerusalem’s curfew, which was lifted at 11 a.m. today, was reimposed at dusk. The municipal officials of Tel Aviv and Nathanya have been warned that curfews and other restrictions will be clamped down on the cities if any outbreaks occur in the vicinity.

A report, not yet confirmed, from Tel Aviv says that two Britons, believed to be policemen, have been kidnapped. Also from Tel Aviv, it is reported that an unidentified Jew this morning was deliberately shot at and wounded by troops. A passer-by who witnessed the shooting summoned police.

The family of Abhod Mizrachi, who was killed in Jerusalem last night, said today that he had not violated the curfew regulations in any manner, but had been hurrying home so as to arrive there before the curfew, which was announced suddenly–and in various forms–could prevent him from returning.

Another curfew victim, 14-year-old Zahava Albalag, is still confined to Hadassah Hospital with a leg wound. She was shot when jittery soldiers who had been given three different versions of the curfew regulations tried to enforce all of them, resulting in confusion.

Two Jews who were arrested yesterday after a military jeep was ambushed in the center of Jerusalem were released on bail today. Since bail is never granted to terrorists, it is assumed that the police have been unable to connect them with the incident.

The Stern Group distributed pamphlets tonight stating that it was responsible for the bomb which was planted in the Colonial Office in London last week by a still unidentified young woman. A Sternist broadcast warned of reprisals for the deaths of the extremists.