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Rue Copernic Blast Attributed to Rightwing Spanish Terrorists

June 30, 1981
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The French daily Le Quotidien reported today that an extreme rightwing Spanish terrorist group was responsible for the Rue Copernic synagogue bombing last October 3 in which four persons were killed and more than a dozen injured. The paper quoted unidentified French and Spanish police sources as naming four Spanish terrorists as the perpetrators.

The report said two of the Spaniards planted the bomb for which Libyan ruler Muammar Qadaffi and the Palestinians were originally blamed.

The police source said they had followed the “Spanish lead” from the start but that it has led no-where as yet. They said they showed photos of Mila Rodriguez, a well known Spanigh rightwing activist and reputedly the gang’s leader, to eye-witnesses of the Rue Copernic outrage. But none recalled seeing him on the site before the explosion.

The reasons for the attack are still unknown, Quotidien said. But the gang’s “Godfather,” Gomez Benet, is believed to be involved with organized crime in Spain which is ready to undertake any “contract” for money. According to the paper, the parties who paid for the Rue Copernic bombing are not known but the Benet gang is closely linked to neo-Fascist organizations.

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