West Berlin police arrested six Palestinians yesterday suspected of involvement in the bombing of an Israeli restaurant there last Friday night in which 25 persons were injured, including a 14-month-old child reported in critical condition. The suspects were later released.
The restaurant, Mifgash Israel, is located in the center of the city. A group calling itself the Peoples League of Free Palestine claimed responsibility for the outrage in an anonymous telephone call to the West German news agency’s Berlin office.
Later, another group, called the Arab May 15 Organization for the Liberation of Palestine, announced in Beirut that it had carried out the attack. The same group had claimed responsibility for bombing the El Al office in Istanbul January 9.
BOMBING CONFIRMED RECENT WARNINGS
But according to West Berlin police, the suspects detained were believed to be members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. However, chief investigator Manfred Kittlau said last night there was no concrete evidence implicating them and that the police were considering all possibilities. Heinz Galinski, chairman of the West Berlin Jewish community, said the bombing confirmed recent warnings that violence-prone extremist groups of both left and right were increasingly active in West Germany.
The restaurant, which specialized in Israeli and Middle East cuisine, is owned by Dany Mezger and Naftali Schoenberg, both Israeli citizens. It was severely damaged by the bomb.
GERMAN AIRLINE OFFICE BOMBED
(A bomb blast caused extensive damage to the Tel Aviv office of Lufthansa, the West German airlines, last night and shattered windows in a wide area around Hayarkon Street where the office is located. There were no casualties. Police investigating the incident said it may have been in retaliation for the West Berlin bombing.)
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