Extreme Leftists Trigger Car Bomb at U.S. Center in Brussels; Guard Hurt

A car bomb exploded less than a mile from NATO headquarters Tuesday, shattering windows and wrecking the facade of a U.S. Army social center, which officials said also housed offices of a Pentagon security agency.

An extreme leftist group claimed responsibility for the blast and indicated that the U.S. security agency was one of its targets. It also warned of future attacks to “wound or kill Yankee military and their accomplices.”

Lt. Col. William Taylor, a U.S. Army spokesman, said one U.S. guard was slightly hurt in the explosion. He added that one security arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Defense Investigative Service, “has a very small staff in the building, about five or six people.”

Investigators said a man drove the stolen car with the bomb inside, parked it at the building’s entrance and fled in another car waiting nearby and driven by a second man.

The leftist group, the Cellules Communistes Combattantes (Fighting Communist Cells), which has said it was behind other recent bomb attacks against North Atlantic Treaty Organization targets, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

In a related development, two major urban guerrilla groups--West Germany’s Red Army Faction and France’s outlawed Action Directe--have decided to unite with the expressed aim of attacking NATO targets, according to a document received in Paris on Tuesday by Reuters news agency.