Two powerful rockets were fired early this morning at the South Yemen Embassy in Paris by a group claiming to represent “The victims of the Rue Copernic Synagogue blast” which killed four people and wounded 33 last Oct. 3.
The rockets, which police said seemed to have been manned by experts, caused serious damage to the building but no casualties. The attack took place shortly before 4 a.m. local time and police say the attackers presumably did not plan to kill anyone.
An inscription found on the wall of a courtyard from which the rockets were fired said “Remember Copernic.” Pamphlets found on the site also indicated that the attackers were seeking revenge for the bomb attack against the Paris Reform synagogue. Later, an anonymous telephone caller told the Agence France Presse (AFP), “This attack was committed in the name of the Rue Copernic victims.”
At the time of the Copernic blast, police believed it was carried out by anti-Semitic elements. Later, they assumed that Arab extremists, presumably Libyan inspired, planted the bomb which killed four passers-by, including an Israeli woman tourist. South Yemen, a Marxist country, has been accused of providing training facilities for European and Palestinian terrorists.
INCIDENTS PRECEEDING THE BOMBING
Since the Rue Copernic bombing, several incidents believed to involve Jewish activist groups have been reported: an 84-year-old man, who happened to bear a name similar to that of a former Nazi collaborator, had acid thrown in his face; a 26-year-old student, believed to be a member of the now outlawed neo-Nazi organization, Federation of European Nationalist Action (FANE), was attacked in a similar way earlier this month. In both instances, Jewish groups seem to have been involved.
Shots have been fired at the homes of suspected neo-Nazi sympathisers and FANE’s self appointed leader, Marc Fredriksen, and several of his followers were badly beaten by groups claiming to represent various Jewish activist organizations.
Today’s attack was far more sophisticated. The rockets were fired by delayed action mechanisms and the message to the AFP was relayed over a recording device in an apparent effort to prevent voice identification.
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