Parcel Bomb Attacks Strike at 2 Embassies in Rome
Max Rossi/Reuters
Police at the Chilean Embassy in Rome on Thursday.
By RACHEL DONADIO and J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: December 23, 2010
ROME — Parcel bombs exploded at two embassies in Rome in a coordinated attack Thursday that raised new fears in Europe, which has been on high alert for a possible terrorist attack by Islamist radicals ahead of the holidays. But Italy’s interior minister said that an initial investigation indicated the bombs might have been the work of anarchists, and an Italian anarchist group claimed responsibility for at least one of the attacks.
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The Lede Blog: Locations of Embassy Bombs in Rome(December 23, 2010)
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Italian carabinieri and firemen leaving the Swiss Embassy in Rome after a parcel bomb exploded there on Thursday.
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Italian police stands in front of the Chilean Embassy in Rome where a parcel bomb exploded on Thursday.
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Police cordoned off the Chilean Embassy in Rome where a parcel bomb exploded on Thursday.
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The bombs were sent to the Swiss and Chilean embassies, and wounded one person at each mission, one of them seriously. The package at the Swiss Embassy exploded first, at midday, and the blast at the Chilean Embassy occurred soon after that.
The explosions rattled a city already on edge after police discovered a defective explosive device under a subway seat this week and after violent student protests last week. Early on Thursday, Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, expressed alarm, calling the attacks “a wave of terrorism against embassies,” but by late afternoon no other bombs had been found.
Many questions remained Thursday about the parcel bombs, including why those diplomatic missions had been chosen as targets.
Police said that the “Informal Anarchic Federation” claimed to have been behind the attack at the Chilean Embassy in a note left in a small box next to the wounded embassy worker. The message from the group, also known as FAI, read: “We decided to make our voice heard once more with words and with acts. We will destroy the power structure. Long life the FAI, long live anarchy.”
The same group claimed responsibility for explosive devices sent to Italian and European targets between Christmas of 2003 and early January 2004, including two that exploded outside the Bologna home of Romano Prodi, a former Italian prime minister who was then president of the European Commission.
The package sent to the Chilean Embassy Thursday carried an Italian return address, while the one sent to the Swiss Embassy was destroyed and no address could be identified, the ANSA news agency reported.
The Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni — who spoke before the claim of responsibility became public — did not refer to the note signed by the anarchist group.
The Rome prosecutors’ office — which has extensive ongoing investigations into Italian anarchists — opened a probe Thursday into the bombings, a magistrate involved in the investigation said. The office has been exploring Italian anarchists’ ties with anarchists in Greece.
The attacks in Rome appeared similar to those foiled in Greece last month, when crude explosive devices were sent to 12 embassies in Athens and two foreign leaders; two Greek men, arrested in connection with the bombings, were to be tried next month. The pair are also to be tried for suspected membership in the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, an anarchist group.
After the November bombings, Greece and Italy stepped up their cooperation on counterterrorism efforts, said Thanassis Kokkalakis, a spokesman for the Greek police. But he added that no Greek connection has been established to the bombings in Italy.
“We should be worried because there’s a lot of mimicry right now,” said Mary Bossis, a security expert at the University of Pireaus in Greece. “There’s also plenty of sharing knowledge about how to make the letter bombs. It’s not very easy to make them but it’s not very hard.”
The Swiss Embassy said in a statement that the package containing a hidden explosive device detonated when an embassy employee opened it, causing injuries to both of his hands. The Swiss ambassador to Italy, Bernardino Regazzoni, said the man was in serious condition, but added that his life was not in danger, the ANSA news agency reported.
The employee, a 53-year-old Swiss national, was taken to a local hospital.
The package at the Chilean Embassy also exploded when an employee opened it, wounding his hands and face, a spokeswoman for the police said. Chile’s foreign minister, Alfredo Moreno, described the injuries to the employee, César Mella, as minor. The Chilean government is “taking precautions in the rest of our embassies,” he said.
Shortly after that blast, news agencies reported that a suspicious package had been found at the Ukrainian Embassy, though it later appeared to have been a false alarm.
After the first explosion, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy quickly condemned what he called a “deplorable act of violence” against the Swiss Embassy.
Bomb disposal experts checked the embassy building, located in the leafy Rome neighborhood of Parioli, but no one was evacuated, Reuters reported. “The ambassador is still on site,” Maurizio Mezzavilla, a police spokesman, told reporters at the scene. Police, firefighters and forensic investigators massed around the main gates of the Swiss, Chilean and Ukrainian Embassies earlier in the day, cordoning off the entrances.
Mr. Regazzoni said that embassy could not explain the details of the explosion because it happened while the man was alone in his office, ANSA said.
Citing counterterrorism sources, Italian media said investigators were looking into whether the parcel bombs were sent in retaliation for the jailing of anarchists in Switzerland, including several Italians. Anarchist Web sites claimed three Italian anarchists were being held in Switzerland, though Swiss officials said they could not immediately confirm the reports.
Chile also figures prominently in some Greek and Italian anarchist writings, including by Conspiracy Cells of Fire, the group suspected of orchestrating the Athens parcel bombs in November.
That group had previously claimed responsibility for a bomb placed in front of the Chilean consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece, last year; the police defused it before it could explode. That attack, the group said on an anarchist Web site, was meant to show solidarity with a Chilean anarchist who had recently died when a bomb he was carrying detonated prematurely.
Italy has a long anarchist tradition, dating from the early days of the 20th century, and Greek anarchists have often looked to Italy for spiritual guidance and for help constructing letter bombs, Ms. Bossis said.
She added that anarchist Web sites are full of declarations of solidarity from anarchists in Europe to their comrades around the world, including in Chile, Mexico, Spain, Bolivia, Russia and the Balkans.
Officials at several American intelligence and counterterrorism agencies said Thursday morning they were closely monitoring the situation in Rome, but had not yet reached any conclusions about which group or groups were responsible. “All eyes are on Rome,” one American official said.
The American Embassy in Rome issued a security notice late on Thursday, urging United States citizens in Italy to contact local authorities over any suspicious packages.
The package found earlier this week on the Rome subway
contained tubes, wiring and a small amount of explosive powder, but “was too rudimentary” to work, the police said. In Athens last month, three bombs exploded, two at the Swiss and Russian embassies and the third while en route to the Mexican Embassy. Two devices were also sent from Greece by air and addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy. Athens police charged two Greek men, one a college student and the other unemployed, with terrorism offenses.
Europe remains in the grip of heightened terror alerts after a recent botched suicide attack in Sweden by an Iraqi-born man, terrorism arrests in Britain, Spain and France, and reports of attacks planned against Germany, modeled on the 2008 raids in Mumbai, India.
In October, the State Department cautioned American citizens about traveling to Europe, warning of a possible attack. That travel alert expires on Jan. 31, 2011.
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