Key Italian General Slain by Terrorists; Red Brigades Unit Believed Responsible

Two men on a motorcycle, believed to be Red Brigades terrorists, shot and killed Italy’s top aerospace general Friday night as he was being driven to his home.

An hour after the 6:45 p.m. attack, a woman called a newspaper office in Milan and claimed responsibility for the killing in the name of the “Fighting Communist Union.” This is thought to be a faction of the Red Brigades, the group that terrorized Italy in the 1970s and early 1980s and has recently shown signs of again becoming active.

Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini told reporters that “the Red Brigades continue to operate” as he hurriedly left a Cabinet meeting and headed for the scene of the shooting.

The victim was air force Gen. Licio Giorgieri, 61, director general of aeronautic and space weaponry for the Italian armed forces.

Was Likely Target

The Italian government has not yet agreed to join the research and development program for the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or space-based missile defense system, but Giorgieri was one of the officials who would have been responsible for negotiating such an agreement. There was speculation that this might have been a reason for terrorists to target him. The Red Brigades have vowed to carry out acts of terrorism against “imperialism” on the part of the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations.

Italy’s state-controlled television service speculated that there is a link between Giorgieri’s death and that of French Gen. Renee Audran more than a year ago at the hands of the French terrorist group known as Direct Action. Audran was in charge of armaments for the French Defense Ministry and was involved in the Franco-German military cooperation program.

At about the time Audran was killed, Ernst Zimmerman, head of an arms manufacturing company, was killed in Munich by the German terrorist group called the Red Army Faction.

Terrorist Links

A spate of recent armed robberies, including a postal van hijacking in which two policemen were killed, has led Italian authorities to believe that the long-dormant Red Brigades have not only been revived but have forged links with French and German terrorist groups, and possibly with similar groups in the Middle East.

A police spokesman quoted the general’s driver, who was not hurt, as saying the killers were young men. He said they were riding a cross-country motorcycle and that their features were hidden by their dark plastic helmet visors.

The driver noticed the “dirt bike” when it flashed its lights as if signaling to pass as the general’s car neared its destination in the Aurelia section of suburban Rome, about three miles from the city center. When the bike pulled abreast of the car, the driver told the police, the two men opened fire on the general, who was seated in the rear of the car.

Fired Repeatedly

The driver pulled up near a discotheque known as the Pub Pink Point, and as he stopped the car, the terrorists dismounted and fired repeatedly into the back seat. The police spokesman said the killers apparently used revolvers, since no shell casings were found at the scene.

The two men then raced away on the motorcycle. Not long afterward, the police found such a vehicle nearby, its engine still warm, and they believe it to be the one involved.

About an hour later, a woman called the Milan office of the Rome newspaper La Repubblica and said: “This evening we took care of Licio Giorgieri, the top man in charge of constructing arms and air force and space armaments. A communique will follow. Fighting Communist Union.”

‘A New Blow’

After the postal van hijacking last month, a caller claimed responsibility in the name of the “Red Brigades-Fighting Communist Union.” On that occasion, the killers got away with 1.2 billion lire (about $902,000), and the police speculated that the Red Brigades intended to use the money for future terrorist activities.

Defense Minister Spadolini said the assassination of the general “constitutes a new blow in the plan launched to destabilize the country, a plan which will find, on the part of the state, a firm and decisive reply.

“The killers are back among us. . . ,” Spadolini continued. “Gen. Giorgieri was chosen as a most notable example of men in uniform who work for the defense--that is, the independence and sovereignty--of the country.”