GERMAN POLICE PROBE RAF LINK IN FRANKFURT CAR BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87T00434R000300270006-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 24, 1985
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/01/28: CIA-RDP87T00434R000300270006-0
Current listing of: T689:2 11/24/85..15.:38 Page: 1
Slug:AM-BOMB`4THLD.(WRITETHROUGH, P Date:. 11/23/85 14:26:41
Category:REURI Story:r098
GERMAN POLICE PROBE RAF LINK IN FRANKFURT CAR BOMBING
(Eds: new details throughout)
By Stephen Jukes
FRANKFURT, West Germany, Nov 24, Reuter - At least 23 people
were injured today when a car bomb exploded at an American PX
center packed with Christmas shoppers in an attack linked to
the bombing of a U.S. air base last summer.
The blast injured 21 Americans, one seriously, and two West
Germans. It was the third bomb attack in the area in four
months.
The PX (Post Exchange), a shopping center for U.S. military
personnel, was filled with thousands of Christmass shoppers
when the bomb went off.
11 The blast blew in the windows and bits of glass went flying
.. then people started running from all directions. There was
a huge plume of smoke,'' said Gail Chaney, who works in a
carpet shop across the street.
A spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe
said there were parallels with a car bomb that killed two
Americans and wounded 20 at the Rhein-Main air base near
Frankfurt on August 8.
he--left- in uerrilla group
claimed responsibilit for that c it had murdere
an American so ier for his identity card to gain entry to the
base.
A police spokesman said no one had claimed responsibility for
today's blast.
The bomb was planted in a silver metallic BMW sedan had a Wes
German license plate AB-CH 350, which meant it came from the,
nearby town of Aschaffenburg.
The blast, at 3.22 P.M., (9.22 A.M. EST) blew a crater six
feet wide in the ground and ripped a hole in a nearby
laundromat wall.
Witnesses said about 25 cars were wrecked and windows blown
out of buildings over a radius of 300 yards
The police spokesman said the car had been bought only a day
earlier at a used car lot in Gravenbruch south of Frankfurt. It
was at this market that the green Volkswagen Passat used in
August's airbase attack was bought.
The BMW had been parked behind a gas station at the military
shopping center and Chris Chalko, a spokesman for the U.S.
Fifth Army Corps, said it was possible the bombers were seeking
to ignite underground fuel storage tanks.
Chalko said it was not unusual for West German cars to be
parked at the shopping complex. No security checks were usually
made in that area, he said.
The complex, which was open Sunday specially for Christmas
shopping, is the biggest in the Frankfurt area for U.S.
servicemen and their families.
In addition to the Rhein Mein airbase attack, three bombs
FM
JP
STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/01/28: CIA-RDP87T00434R000300270006-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/01/28: CIA-RDP87T00434R000300270006-0
Current listing of: T689:2 11/24/85 15:38 Page: 2
15:38 at a U.S. base in . the Saarland in September, causing
damage but no injuries.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/01/28: CIA-RDP87T00434R000300270006-0