French police investigators believe they have found material links between local extreme leftwing terrorists and the Palestinian organization which claimed responsibility for the murders of Israeli diplomat Yaacov Bar-Simantov April 3 and an American assistant military attache at the U.S. Embassy here, Lt. Col. Charles Ray, three months earlier.
Police sources said today that one of the guns seized last week from French extremists was found to have been used in the attack against the Israel Trade Mission here March 31. An obscure group in Beirut, calling itself the “Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction,” claimed responsibility for the murder of Ray and the attack on the Trade Mission. Bar-Simantov was gunned down by an unidentified woman. Israel holds the Palestine Liberation Organization responsible for the attack on its Mission and the murder of Bar-Simantov.
Police discovered last week an important cache of arms at the local extremist “Direct Action” hideout. The examination of the weapons and ballistic tests showed, police say, that one of the seized submachineguns had been used in the attack on the Israeli mission. Police also believe that the same Czech-made CZ 7.65 mm automatic pistol was used in the murder of Ray and that of Bar-Simantov.
On this basis, police believe they have found a concrete link between the local “Direct Action” group and the “Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction.”
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