Bombs Damage 4 Paris Firms With Ties to S. Africa

Suspected left-wing terrorists set off a series of bombs in Paris on Thursday, injuring two people and badly damaging buildings belonging to four companies doing business with South Africa, police said.

An anonymous caller claiming to represent the outlawed Direct Action terror group took responsibility for the four bombings, which he said were carried out “to show our solidarity with the South African people.”

“The French and South African states are prepared to do anything to dominate the people that they exploit,” he said in a call to a French news agency.

Two people were slightly injured in the blasts, which caused heavy damage at a Renault car company building, a Swiss insurance firm, a nationalized aluminum company and a coal importing firm, police said.

The attacks were the first by Direct Action since the attempted assassination in June of a French army officer.

In 1982, President Francois Mitterrand outlawed the group after authorities said they suspected it of involvement in a number of attacks against Middle East diplomats in Paris. Since then, it has staged a series of bomb attacks against government and North Atlantic Treaty Organization targets, along with companies with links to Israel and South Africa.