British Executive Shot, Killed in France; Arab Group Claims Reprisal

A lone, masked gunman Friday killed a Briton who headed the French operations of Black & Decker, the American tool company, on the lawn of his home in a wealthy suburb of the industrial city of Lyon in southeastern France.

Anonymous telephone callers, saying they represented an Arab group, which they did not identify, claimed responsibility for the killing of Kenneth Marston,43, but police said they are still not certain that the act was a reprisal for last week’s American bombing raid on Libya or, in fact, if it was connected in any way to the problems of the Mideast.

Marston was wounded in the chest and stomach by two blasts from a sawed-off shotgun. His 11-year-old daughter said she saw a masked man dressed in black run from the scene. Marston, too weak to be moved, died two hours later in his home.

Fears Increased

The killing increased the fears that American and British businessmen had now become the target for vengeful Libyans and other Arabs. These fears seemed confirmed some time later when two news agencies, one French, the other British, received the telephone calls from the anonymous callers, and by an explosion early today in an American Express office in Lyon.

“We are a small Arab group,” said the caller to the French agency. “We claim responsibility for the attack this morning against the director of Black & Decker in reprisal for. . . . “ The caller’s voice then faded off. The listener could make out, however, that the reprisal was for something American.

The British agency heard a caller say, “We will destroy all American and English imperialist interests in the world, wherever they are.”

The explosion in the American Express office occurred at 4 a.m., setting the upper floors of the building ablaze and shattering windows in surrounding buildings.

Police said a passer-by was slightly hurt by flying debris.

Meanwhile, in the Marston killing, police were looking into two other possibilities in addition to a Mideast link. Investigators were checking whether the killing was related to the arrest in March of a reputed organized crime figure accused of receiving part of nearly $1 million in goods stolen from Black & Decker eight months earlier.

Police were also checking for a possible link between the killing and the French leftist terrorist organization Direct Action. Andre Olivier, a founder of Direct Action, was arrested by French police in Lyon last March.

Direct Action tried but failed to kill Guy Brana, the vice president of the French employers association, as he left his suburban Paris home for work earlier this month. In January, 1985, Direct Action succeeded in killing Rene Audran, a top defense official in Paris.

Black & Decker, a power tool company headquartered in Towson, Md., has 1,100 employees in France. Marston became the French managing director in May, 1984. He leaves a wife and three children.

Saudi Airline Bombed

In Vienna, meanwhile, there was another act of violence with possible links to one of the Middle East’s many conflicts, United Press International reported.

A hand grenade, identified as Soviet-made, exploded outside the offices of Saudia, the Saudi Arabian airline, causing minor damage but no injuries. Another grenade was found taped to the door of the Kuwaiti Airways offices in the same building and on the same floor as the office of United Press International.

The blast on the seventh floor of a large office building on Vienna’s famous Ring Boulevard occurred as Interior Minister Karl Blecha and Prince Nayif ibn Abdulaziz, the Saudi interior minister, were discussing possible joint efforts against terrorism.

“It seems to be a demonstrative act,” said Blecha, who identified the grenades as Soviet-made. Police said there was no warning of the blast, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

In another incident for which no group claimed responsibility, West German police said Friday that a Canadian military van and the private car of a U.S. serviceman were damaged in arson attacks near Heidelberg, in central West Germany. Police said both incidents occurred Thursday in the town of Leimen-St. Ilgen-Geiberg, about three miles southwest of Heidelberg.