2 More Arabs Arrested in W. German Bombing

West Berlin police announced today that they have arrested two more Arabs on suspicion of taking part in the La Belle discotheque bombing that killed an American soldier and a Turkish woman.

The United States accused Libya of sponsoring the April 5 bombing, and U.S. planes struck the Libyan capital of Tripoli and the port of Benghazi on April 15 in retaliation.

At a news conference today at the West Berlin prosecutor’s offices, police identified the two arrested men as Jordanian-born Farouk Salameh, 39, and 34-year-old Fayez Sahawneh. Both are residents of West Berlin, and the Morgenpost said Salameh is married to a German.

Manfred Ganschow, who heads the police investigating team, said Salameh and Sahawneh were arrested April 30 on suspicion of taking part in two bombings.

Friendship Society Blast

He said the first was the March 29 bombing of an Arab-German Friendship Society building in West Berlin, in which seven people were injured, and the second was the La Belle bombing.

The friendship society was founded in February, 1985, to promote German-Arab friendship. Police believe that it was attacked because it is politically neutral and does not take a position on political issues.

Using information provided by British police, West Berlin police had earlier arrested a Palestinian, Ahmed Nawaf Mansur Hasi, in connection with the disco bombing.

Hasi’s brother, Nezar Hindawi, 31, was arrested April 18 in London on charges of trying to blow up an Israeli airliner the previous day, in reaction to the U.S. raid on Libya. Hindawi booked his pregnant lover on an El Al flight to Israel, then gave her a bomb concealed in hand luggage. The woman was stopped by security before boarding the plane. She was arrested, but police said she had been duped by Hindawi, who had told her that he would follow her to Israel and marry her there.

Bombings Only Days Apart

Ganschow said Hasi and Salameh have admitted taking part in the March bombing. “Since the arrested perpetrators now in jail have admitted to one attack, then they must come in question for the other,” Ganschow said.

He noted that the bombings occurred only days apart, adding, “We have not had bombing attacks of this type in Berlin for years.”

Ganschow said that in both bombings, leftover explosives were not found and that damage to the buildings was “nearly identical.”

Besides the two people killed, the La Belle bombing wounded 230 people, 63 of them Americans.