German Radicals’ Bomb Kills Top Nuclear Physicist

A bomb today tore through the armor-plated car of the chief of research of the Siemens electronics group, killing him and his driver as they drove to work. Officials said the Red Army Faction terror group claimed responsibility.

The federal prosecutor’s office said a letter was left at the scene of the explosion claiming the bombing was carried out by the Red Army Faction’s Mara Cagol commando unit.

Mara Cagol was a member of Italy’s leftist Red Brigades terrorist group and the wife of Renato Curcio, one of its founders. She was killed in the 1970s in a shoot-out with police.

Member of Board

The slain research chief, Karl Heinz Beckurts, 56, was a nuclear physicist and a member of the managing board at Siemens AG, West Germany’s largest electronics group. It also is one of the nation’s largest companies, with annual sales of $27 billion.

Police identified Beckurts’ driver as Ekkehard Kroppler, 42. They said that Beckurts’ bodyguard was following in another car a short distance behind and that this car was slightly damaged but the bodyguard was unhurt.

The bomb contained the equivalent of 22 pounds of TNT, police said. It was detonated as Beckurts’ car passed through suburban Munich shortly after leaving his home in the posh suburb of Strasslach.

The blast ripped through the armor-plated luxury car and sent flames shooting 65 feet into the air.

Police said the bomb had been set in or at the side of the road. A cable attached to the bomb led to a detonator set in a nearby woods.

Werner Osel, a spokesman for Siemens, denied reports that Beckurts had been working on research for the U.S. “Star Wars” missile defense program.

Osel said Beckurts had taken part, along with other Siemens officials and representatives of other German high-technology companies, in talks with Bonn officials about participation in the U.S. program.

But Osel emphasized that the company had made no proposals concerning “Star Wars” to the West German government and said he was unaware of any planned proposals.