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.
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.