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New Evidence Links Palestinian to Fatal Attack on Jewish Center

November 3, 1981
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The police produced new evidence today suggesting that Bahij Younis, a Palestinian Arab bearing a Jordanian passport, was the organizer of a terrorist attack on the Jewish Community Center here August 29 in which two persons were killed and 18 wounded. Younis was arrested in Salzburg last Wednesday after another terrorist arrested in the Community Center attack linked him to the assassination of Heinz Nittel, president of the Austria-Israel Friendship Society last May I.

Police said that a search of Younis’ flat yielded explosives and the passports of two terrorists involved in the attack on the Community Center. They also found hand grenades of the same type used in the attack. Fragments of the latter are identical to those found in Younis’ possession.

Ballistic tests on three Makarov pistols, also found in Younis’ flat, did not determine positively whether one of them had been used to murder Nittel, police said. The second terrorist, Mohammad Radjai, told police under interrogation that he had killed Nittel with a weapon provided by Younis.

Younis, now in custody, is the most heavily guarded prisoner in Austria. Police are sifting through his documents for possible leads to other terrorists who worked for him and for connections with West German collaborators. His passport indicated that Younis made frequent trips between Austria and West Germany.

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