Spanish police defuse letter bombs
Police in northern Spain defused three letter bombs addressed to journalists in Madrid, the Interior Ministry said.
The devices were found by a metal detector at a mail sorting office in Zaragoza, 200 miles north-east of the capital yesterday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Each envelope contained a crude explosive device with 60g (2.12oz) of gunpowder, the ministry said.
Bomb squads defused the letter bombs safely after the mail sorting office was evacuated, it said.
The letters were addressed to Luis Maria Anson, the director and founder of Madrid conservative daily La Razon, Federico Jimenez Losantos, a commentator at radio station La Cope and the news director of the private television station Antena 3, who was not identified.
The ministry did not give any details on who had sent the letters, but said the return addresses listed on the envelopes did not exist.
In Italy, police were examining a pair of package bombs intercepted yesterday at a Rome post office and addressed to two prison system officials. The bombs were the latest in a spate of explosive devices that have been sent to Italian officials.
It was not clear if there was any connection between the Spanish and Italian incidents.
An anarchist group, the Informal Anarchic Federation, claimed responsibility for sending the Italian devices.
The group apparently sent a letter received last night by the left-leaning daily La Repubblica, newspaper officials said.
The group has claimed responsibility for previous package bombs.
News of the letter bombs came three weeks after the March 11 Madrid rail bombings, which killed 191 people and injured more than 1,800 others. Suspicion has fallen on Moroccan extremists and the al-Qaida terrorist network.
