POLICE DISMISS FRANKFURT BOMB CLAIM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720015-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: June 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720015-7
ARTICLE APPEAKLU
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04 ~nr_G 22 June 1985
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Police Dismiss Frankfurt Bonibli~ith
By William Drozdiak
Washington Post Foreign Service
BONN, June 21-West German
police today dismissed a claim by
the Arab Revolutionary Organiza-
tion to have planted the bomb at
Frankfurt's Rhein-Main Interna-
tional Airport Wednesday that
killed three persons and hospital-
ized 27 others, a police spokesman
said.
The previously unknown group
assumed responsibility for the ex-
plosion in a message passed to a
newspaper in Beirut on Thursday
night. It said the attack was carried
out because West German intelli-
gence agents were working with
their U.S. and Israeli counterparts
to recruit young Arabs in West Ger-
many to assassinate leading figures
among "Arab fighting organizations"
in Lebanon.
A 92-member commission inves-
tigating the bombing concluded to-
day the claim was a hoax because
the group had never been heard of
before and its statement lacked suf-
ficient details.
The powerful blast occurred in a
departure lounge beyond the air-
port security zone, near the check-
in counters for international flights.
The explosion tore a crater three
feet deep in the concrete floor, lit-
tering the area with ripped luggage
and broken glass.
Two Australian children and a
Portuguese man were killed. Four
of those injured are still listed in
critical condition.
Police officials said they also re-
jected half a dozen telephone calls
assuming responsibility for the
bomb, including two claims by peo-
ple purporting to be associated with
the extreme-left Red Army Faction.
Heribert Hellenbroich, head of
West Germany's counterintelli-
gence activities, said today he did
not believe the Frankfurt attack
was the work of radical left- or,
right-wing German terrorists. He
and other senior investigators con-
tended that the blast did not fit in
with the kind of tactics used in the
past by such groups.
The explosives were so potent
that all remnants of the bomb were
apparently "atomized" in the blast,
making the effort to trace its ori-
gins difficult, a police spokesman
said.
Frankfurt investigators say the
best lead so far has come from a
Portuguese passenger who saw a
man running from the scene after
the explosion and driving off in a
blue Mercedes.
Reached by West German police
in Lisbon, the passenger described
the man as about 5 foot 7, about 30
years old and slim with dark hair,
authorities said.
Police examiners said they have
determined that the bomb weighed
10 to 20 pounds and was hidden in a
gray suitcase next to a wastebas-
ket.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201720015-7