Mystery Caller Threatens Other Terrorist Bombings

A caller saying he represented the group that bombed Pan Am Flight 103 threatened more attacks today, but officials discounted the man’s claims and were reportedly focusing on other organizations because of the way the bomb was detonated.

The new threat followed orders to tighten security at more than 100 airports used by American airlines in Europe and the Middle East and similar moves in Japan after threats to Asian airlines by a Palestinian group.

A man who called American news agencies in London today said he was from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, the shadowy pro-Iranian group that earlier said it was responsible for bombing the Boeing 747 and killing all 259 people aboard, as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland.

In today’s call, the man threatened further attacks in the new year if the son of the late Shah of Iran is allowed to continue to live in the United States.

“In the name of the God and the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, we are very proud to carry out the attack on Pan Am,” the man told United Press International over the phone in heavily accented English.

“We are very concerned about the recent activities and the Reza Pahlavi (the son of the late shah). We demand America to throw him out of America or else there will be another present in the new year for America, 12 years after the Islamic Revolution.” He then hung up.

The Times of London reported today that intelligence officials discounted the claims of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, the only group so far to have claimed responsibility for the worst aviation disaster in British history.

“This group is known to have carried out two bombing incidents, but they were both against Iranian dissidents,” the newspaper quoted an intelligence source as saying. “Their claim of responsibility for the Pan Am disaster holds no credibility.”

The newspaper also reported that investigators are now looking into the theory that a sophisticated device with two separate detonating systems was used to trigger the Pan Am bomb.