Mob boss said injured in Jerusalem car bombing along with 13-year-old son
Media names target of blast as criminal Itzik Bar Muha, 58; reports say he was taking his son to school when bomb went off in Armon Hanatziv neighborhood
An Israeli mob boss and his 13-year-old son were injured in a car bombing Tuesday morning in Jerusalem, according to Hebrew media reports.
Media outlets named the target as Itzik Bar Muha, 58, one of the heads of the so-called Jerusalem mafia. He was seriously injured in the blast, reports said, and his son was moderately wounded.
The blast occurred in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of the capital, police and medics said.
According to the Ynet news site, Bar Muha was taking his son to school when their car exploded not far from the school.
Magen David Adom paramedics said they were treating two for burns at the scene, later adding that they were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Police said that the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device, and that they suspect it was likely a criminal matter and not terror-related.
Bar Muha is a powerful figure in Israel’s organized crime underworld. He has long been suspected of control over illegal casinos, loan sharking, protection rackets and involvement in violent conflicts with rival gangs.
He has spent over a decade in prison for various convictions, and has been the target of at least one previous car bombing attempt.
ראשוני: שני פצועים בירושלים לאחר שרכב ככל הנראה התפוצץ@inbartvizer pic.twitter.com/mCB5MpJEyK
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Witnesses at the scene of Tuesday’s explosion said that the blast was bigger than anything they experienced during recent wars: “The whole house shook,” one told Ynet.
The incident came amid a prolonged wave of violent crime in Israel, and just over a month after another crime boss, Yanis Yushvaev of Israel’s Caucasian Mafia, was assassinated in a daytime shooting at point-blank range in Caesarea.