The police are holding three men suspected of bombing a Jewish-owned clothing store in an outlying district of Rome on Sunday night.
But they say it was not a political or racially motivated act, but a bad practical joke by not-too-bright perpetrators.
A simple, homemade bomb placed in front of the store shattered its windows and caused some interior damage.
One of the accused, a man with a record of theft and drug-trafficking convictions, told police he and his companions thought it would be funny to bomb a Jewish shop “because of all the news and tension about the war in the Gulf,” a Rome newspaper reported.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.