Chicago, IL, (ENN) October 15, 1995 --In what is being described by French government officials as an event "unconnected to the latest series of Islamic extremist attacks", a car rigged with a propane cylinder exploded in the Paris suburb of Le Blanc-Mesnil on Saturday. French police union leaders disagree and say that the blast was the result of "anti-police ambush." A spokesperson for the SGP (General Police Union) said that they had had received an anonymous call for a man trapped in a burning car.
Upon their arrival, they found the burning car, but it had been stolen and no one was found inside. Instead, a propane gas tank was seen on the seat just prior to an explosion. Four police officers were reported to be slightly injured by the detonation. Police say that they believe it was a "setup", because just moments before, district firefighters had been called to a false alarm on the other side of town.
French government officials reportedly said that an investigation of the incident was being handled by local police, rather than special anti-terrorist forces, because they saw no direct links" to seven (7) other bombings that have occurred in Paris and Lyons in recent days. SGP leader Jean-Louis Arajol was quoted by the Reuters News service as saying that this attack was "another signal that criminals were forsaking low-level violence and imitating guerrilla methods."
Arajol also warned French President Jacques Chirac not to get involved in Algerian politics and the upcoming presidential elections in Algeria. He said that a scheduled meeting between Chirac and Algerian General and President Liamine Zeroual at the UN 50th Anniversary celebration in New York City could appear to lend support to Zeroual as a candidate and to further enflame Moslem inspired violence.
In a related story, the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, in its Sunday edition, said that the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) has issued a warning of further bombings of Paris landmarks and assassinations of unfriendly French journalists. Specific targets reportedly included the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, and several fashionable Paris department stores. A list of threatened journalists, most of them television commentators, was not released.
To backup the Le Journal du Dimanche report, a similar threat was issued in a GIA newsletter that was quoted in London, on Sunday, by the Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper. In the article, GIA sources said that the bombings in Paris would continue unless France discontinued its support for the military backed government in Algeria. The Al-Hayat article reportedly also featured a cartoon of the Eiffel Tower exploding.