1985 Frankfurt Airport bombing

Last updated
Frankfurt airport bombing
Location Frankfurt, West Germany
Date19 June 1985
Attack type
Bombing
Deaths3
Injured74
Perpetrators Abu Nidal Organization [1]

On 19 June 1985, a bombing at the Frankfurt Airport, West Germany, killed three and wounded 74 people. [1] A second bomb was found and defused not far from the first explosion. [2] Two of those killed were Australian children, 2-year-old and 5-year-old siblings, and the third a Portuguese man. [3]

Contents

About 30 groups claimed responsibility, among them an unprecedented group calling itself Arab Revolutionary Organisation, having done so because of West German intelligence recruiting Arabs to assassinate members of Arab revolutionary movements in Lebanon. [4] In July 1988, West German investigators concluded that the Palestinian Abu Nidal Organization, which itself had also claimed responsibility, had perpetrated the attack, and that the Libyan embassy in Bonn had pre-knowledge of the attack. The investigators also claimed that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may have played a role in the attack. [1] [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Palestinian group blamed for airport bombing". United Press International. 28 July 1988.
  2. "Frankfurt Airport Ripped by Bomb; 3 Killed, 32 Hurt : Explosive Put in Trash Can by Ticket Counters". Los Angeles Times. 19 June 1985.
  3. "Arab Group Asserts it Planted Bomb in Frankfurt". The New York Times. 22 June 1985.
  4. "Arab Group Asserts it Planted Bomb in Frankfurt". The New York Times. 22 June 1985.
  5. "Newspaper Says Airport Bombing Blamed on Abu Nidal Terrorists". Associated Press News. 28 July 1988.