BEIT LAHIYA (Gaza Strip), Jan 12: Gunmen smashed windows, burned buses and looted computers belonging to a private American school in Gaza before dawn on Saturday, an attack officials believed was linked to US President George W. Bush’s visit to the West Bank earlier this week.

Also in Gaza, a roadside bomb injured three Hamas policemen, while medics found the bullet-riddled body of another policeman, the brother of a senior Gaza militant.

Saturday’s attack on the American International School was the second in 48 hours. On Thursday, just before Bush arrived in the West Bank, gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the school.

Early Saturday, gunmen locked the school’s unarmed guard into a room, burned six school buses, and smashed windows and computers, said principal Ribhi Salim. Other computers were stolen. In a claim made to local media, a previously unknown group, The Holy Jihad Brigades, said it was behind Thursday’s attack. However, no one claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, which left one side of the building scarred with black smoke.

“This is terrorism against education,” Salim said, while inspecting damage.

Vandals have repeatedly targeted the school in the past for its perceived US link. Many Palestinians resent the US government because of its perceived pro-Israel bias.

The private school in northern Gaza holds classes in English for 400 students from kindergarten to grade 12 and uses a US-style curriculum but has no ties to the US government. Ribhi said the school would not close, although students may take classes in makeshift classrooms until damage is repaired.—AP