American Working at Turkish Air Base Slain

A gunman today shot to death an American civilian who was employed on the air base in this southern city that U.S. warplanes have been using to bomb neighboring Iraq, officials reported.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Ankara said the American was a civilian working for a company providing services to the Incirlik base.

She said she did not yet know if the shooting was considered an act of terrorism.

The semiofficial Anatolia news agency said the victim was a U.S. customs expert. It identified him as Bobbie Mozelle. No U.S. hometown was provided.

The dispatch said the American was shot as he was getting into his car in front of his apartment building to go to work. He died immediately after being hit by four bullets, the agency said.

Turkey has been hit by a wave of bombings claimed by a leftist group, Dev Sol, which has said it is protesting the U.S.-led coalition’s role in the Persian Gulf War.

Meanwhile, bomb disposal experts in Athens today dismantled a time bomb planted under a French Embassy employee’s car that was parked near an American school, police said.

The incident came a day after bomb attacks against a U.S. bank and another French-owned car. Similar attacks in Greece in recent days have been linked to the Gulf War. No injuries have been reported.

Iraq has called for terrorists to strike at the interests of nations allied against it in the Persian Gulf War, which include the United States, Britain and France.

Since the war began Jan. 17, Western interests have sustained more than 70 Gulf-related terrorist attacks.

The bomb found today was under a car parked near the American Community School in the Aghia Paraskevi suburb of Athens. The device was discovered by private security guards at the high school, a police spokesman speaking on condition of anonymity said.

Police did not release details of the bomb, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.