Two powerful bombs ripped through the Syrian Embassy here today killing a Syrian diplomat and seriously wounding eight people, seven of them women. The explosion occurred less than an hour before Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddom arrived in France for talks with French officials and to address the Council of Europe plenary in Strasbourg later this week.
An anonymous caller told French radio stations that the attack was carried out by a Lebanese underground organization to protest the continued presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon.
The two bombs went off shortly before noon in the Embassy’s Consular section which was crowded with Consular officials and people on business. The Ambassador’s office, located above the Consulate, was severely damaged but the Ambassador himself was unhurt.
Police identified the dead man as Third Secretary Marwan Mamamy, 34, and the wounded as seven women working in the Consular section, two Syrians and five French, and a French passerby. Four of the wounded are reported in serious condition.
The Embassy is guarded by Syrian security agents and French police but none of the guards noticed any possible suspect. The Paris Commissioner of Police is personally supervising the investigation but police officials say they have no clues as yet as to the identity of the assailants.
PREVIOUS KILLINGS RECALLED
Less than two weeks ago, a pro-Palestinian activist was shot to death in central Paris. Pro-Iraqi Palestinians reportedly assumed responsibility for the killing. The head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s military department, Zohair Mohsen, was shot to death last summer while vacationing on the Riviera in the south of France. In neither of these killings has the police managed to identify or arrest the culprits.
Halim Khaddam is due to meet tomorrow with his French counterpart Aeon Francois-Poncet, and with other top French officials. Syria is one of the handful of Moslem countries which did not attend the Islamic Foreign Ministers Conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, and which continues to defend the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
