Woman Sought in W. German Blast Arrested

Police today arrested a West German woman suspected of planting a bomb in a West Berlin discotheque that killed two U.S. soldiers, prompting the United States to attack Libya.

The government said Christina Gabriele Endrigkeit, 27, who allegedly was working for two Palestinian terrorists in the April 5, 1986, bombing, was arrested along with an unidentified man in the northern port city of Luebeck.

The blast in the crowded La Belle club, which was popular with American soldiers, also killed a Turkish woman and injured 229.

Endrigkeit disappeared after the bombing and was believed hiding with her 3-year-old son. On Sunday, Volker Kaehne, spokesman for the West Berlin Justice Department, released a photograph of her and told reporters she was being “urgently sought” as a key suspect.

The United States blamed Libya for the La Belle attack and 10 days later bombed Tripoli and Benghazi in retaliation for it and other acts of terrorism it said Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi had aided. Western diplomats said at least 100 people were killed in the raids on Libya.

In Washington, the Administration today reiterated its view that Libya was behind the disco bombing. “We have clear and in our view unequivocal evidence of Libyan culpability in the La Belle bombing,” State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said.

Libyan Role Suspected

U.S. authorities said after the bombing that they had intercepted radio messages from the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin that implicated Kadafi’s agents in the attack. West German investigators have said they never were given any such evidence.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl and other West German officials also said shortly after the disco bombing that Libya was suspected of orchestrating the blast.

On Sunday, a security source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Endrigkeit “allegedly acted (in the bombing) on behalf of the Jordanian-born brothers Ahmed Nawaf Hasi and Nezar Hindawi,” who are serving prison sentences.