Third Anarchist Bomb in Rome?
Another letter bomb found at tax office; anarchist group promised three.
Dec. 15, 2011 — -- Another letter bomb has been intercepted by Italian police at a Rome tax collection office, nearly a week after a bomb severed the finger of the office's director, in what may have been the third of a promised trio of attacks by Italian anarchists.
A bomb squad was brought into an Equitalia office Thursday after a suspicious package was reported to police. Inside the unaddressed envelope, police found explosive powder, according to media reports. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said the package also included a note that read, "Death to usurers!"
Last Friday, the same office's director was wounded in the hands and eyes when he opened a letter bomb addressed to him. Two days before that, a letter bomb was discovered in the mail room of Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters, addressed to the bank's CEO Josef Ackermann.
An Italian anarchist group called the Federazione Anarchica Informale claimed responsibility for both earlier attacks, leaving notes with each device referring to "three explosions against banks, bankers, ticks and bloodsuckers," according to German state police.
Police said they are investigating any links between Thursday's attempt and last week's explosions.As a result of the confirmed threat to Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt last week, New York City police stepped up security at the bank's U.S. headquarters in New York.
On Thursday, two suspicious packages reported at Credit Suisse's Manhattan offices triggered a full scale police response to the Madison Avenue location. A bomb squad and counter terror teams inspected the boxes and found them to contain harmless electronics.
The FAI was behind a series of letter bombs sent to foreign embassies in Rome last December, seriously injuring two people.
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