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News Weekly Claims Palestinian Extremists. Not Neo-nazi Group, Bombed Rue Copernic Synagogue

March 23, 1981
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Five Palestinian terrorists belonging to an extremist Palestinian organization were responsible for the bombing of the Rue Copernic synagogue last October in which four persons were killed and 32 were injured, according to the French weekly, Le Point, in its forthcoming issue due to appear tomorrow.

The weekly, which attributes the information to its own investigations and to “friendly” foreign intelligence sources, reports that the five terrorists were sent to Paris from Beirut to carry out the attack which at first was attributed to the French neo-Nazi organization, Federation of European Nationalist Action (FANE), which was outlawed later last year.

The weekly says that one of the terrorists, using forged Cypriot identity papers, bought the motorcycle which was used to transport the powerful bomb to outside the synagogue’s gate. The paper identifies him only as “Ahmed” but says he is the man who led the terrorist commando group and personally set the bomb. The bombing caused an uproar in France. Mass demonstrations were held throughout the country and more than 100,000 people marched through the center of Paris.

FANE was initially blamed for the attack. Later, however, a 29-year-old former French army paratrooper, Jean-Yves Pellay, confessed that he was responsible for the attack. Pellay, who is half Jewish, has since told police that after infiltrating the neo-Nazi group he made the calls “to discredit” the organization and turn public opinion against it.

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