Italian anarchists claim responsibility for German bomb

Dec 8, 2011, 16:53 GMT

Wiesbaden, Germany - An Italian anarchist group, the Federazione Anarchica Informale (FAI), has claimed responsibility for an attempted letter bomb attack on Josef Ackermann, a top banker in Germany, police said Thursday.

The letter of responsibility said two more letter bombs were on their way.

Hesse state police in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt, said the rolled-up, handwritten piece of paper with the claim showed up during evidence collection by police scientists, but gave no more details.

It was apparently in the same A5-sized envelope as the bomb, which was addressed to the office of Ackermann, 63, the Swiss-born chief executive of Germany's biggest bank, Deutsche Bank.

Corporate mail room staff intercepted the bomb Wednesday before it could be delivered, X-rayed it and called police.

The letter in Italian said there would be 'three explosions directed at banks, bankers and parasites.'

The FAI is a leftist terrorist group that has claimed similar attempted attacks in the past on government organizations in Europe, including a 2003 letter bomb sent to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

'We're taking this very seriously, said senior prosecutor Doris Moeller-Scheu.

Two people were injured when the FAI sent letter bombs at the end of 2010 to the Chilean and Swiss embassies in Rome.

This week's bomb was primed to cause burns to his hands and face, German police said.

A Frankfurt police spokesman, Udo Buehler, said it contained an incendiary powder, not an explosive, and would have detonated if it had been opened. He described it as a 'very dangerous bomb.'

Ackermann has been in charge of the bank for more than nine years and is coming up to retirement. The bank's chief executive is traditionally a controversial figure to German leftists.

Police said scientists were still checking what the powder was.

'It wasn't a military or industrial explosive,' Buehler said.