Italy Expels 8 More Libyans; Syrians Reportedly Being Sought

Italy ordered eight Libyan Embassy diplomats and employees Friday to leave the country in the latest of a series of expulsions linked to the U.S. raid on Libya.

Meanwhile, Italy’s largest newspaper Corriere della Sera, quoting unnamed sources, said the goverment has prepared 20 international arrest warrants for “persons seemingly all of Syrian nationality” wanted in the Dec. 27 Rome airport terror attack that left 20 people dead.

No official comment on the report was immediately available, the Associated Press reported.

The new expulsions raise to 19 the number of people associated with the Libyan Embassy, called People’s Bureau, who have been ordered out of Italy over the past month. Libya has expelled 25 Italian officials during the same period.

The Foreign Ministry said the eight Libyans, including three diplomats from the Libyan Embassy in Rome, were asked to leave the country as soon as possible. The diplomats were expelled for behavior considered incompatible with their diplomatic status, it said.

Milan Consulate

The others included three embassy personnel and two employees of Libya’s consulate in Milan, the sources said.

The ministry said the latest move is partly in response to Libya’s expulsion May 12 of 36 diplomats and officials of European Communities countries, including the 25 Italians.

The expulsions also are part of a plan adopted by European foreign ministers on April 21, following the April 15 U.S. air raids on Tripoli and Benghazi, to restrict Libyan diplomatic activity in Europe and crack down on alleged Libyan-backed terrorism.

On April 26, Italy ordered the Libyan Embassy in Rome to reduce its staff by 10 and restricted freedom of movement for all Libyan envoys in the country.

On May 13, one of five officials at the Libyan consulate in Palermo was declared persona non grata and ordered out of the country.

Libyan diplomats remaining in Italy now are under travel and other restrictions.

Questioning of Terrorist

The Corriere della Sera report on the arrest warrants said that prosecutor Domenico Sica, a leading anti-terrorist judge heading Italy’s investigation into the attack, drew up the warrants after long hours of questioning Mohammed Sarham, alleged to be the lone surviviing terrorist from the airport assault.

Sica has said that Sarham’s statements revealed that the terrorist commando left Damascus, Syria, for Europe to stage the attack and likely had Syrian support.

No one answered Sica’s office telephone early today and an official at the office of Prime Minister Bettino Craxi said no one was available for comment.

The newspaper said the accused included some “high government functionaries,” including one involved in military air security in Damascus. No other details were offered.

The Corriere della Sera report did not say whether the warrants had actually been issued. But it said Sica and other investigators felt compelled to draw them up after questions of possible Syrian involvement resurfaced in public this week.

An international arrest warrant has already been issued by Italy for Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist whom Sarham reportedly implicated early in the police interrogation as the mastermind of the attacks.

In the Rome attack, 18 people, including five Americans and three terrorists, were killed when Palestinian commandos opened fire near the El Al and TWA ticket counters at Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Scores more were injured.

A nearly simultaneous attack at the Vienna airport resulted in the deaths of two travelers and a terrorist.