American Civilian Worker at Turkish Base Shot to Death : Terrorism: Detroit man, 46, becomes first known fatality in wave of attacks since conflict began.

An American civilian who worked at a Turkish air base was shot to death Thursday, apparently by Turkish revolutionaries, becoming the first American to die in a wave of terrorist attacks since the U.S.-led military alliance went to war against Iraq.

A caller to newspapers claiming to represent Dev-Sol, an underground leftist group, said the slain American, Bobbie E. Mozelle, had been singled out because he was believed to be a CIA agent. “The bases cannot be used for the bloody schemes of U.S. imperialism,” the caller said.

Mozelle, 46, of Detroit, was killed as he left home in the southern Turkish city of Adana to drive to work at the giant Incirlik Air Base, where U.S. bombers depart around the clock on missions against Iraq. A gunman shot him several times as he was getting into his car, U.S. consular officials said.

Mozelle was the first American known to have died in more than 70 attacks worldwide on commercial, diplomatic and military targets belonging to members of the anti-Iraq alliance since Jan. 17, the start of the war. Several non-Americans have died in Peru and Lebanon.

In Detroit, Mozelle’s sister said she believes that he was targeted because he was black and easily identifiable as an American, the Associated Press reported.

“My brother was not a spy,” Vanessa Washington said. She said Mozelle was an accountant for a company that provides services to Incirlik.

Mozelle, she said, was a 20-year Air Force veteran who served in the Vietnam War and retired as a master sergeant two years ago.

Turkey has been among the countries worst hit by terrorism, with more than 12 bombings and shootings. Dev-Sol has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. Diplomats say the incidents bear the hallmarks of the highly motivated, hard-core extremist group, whose name translates as Revolutionary Left.

“It’s definitely Dev-Sol,” said one diplomatic security officer. “Dev-Sol has been looking for a cause. The Gulf War is unpopular in Turkey, and their theoreticians see it as a big chance.”

The officer said there is no evidence of an Iraqi link to the acts by Dev-Sol. Even so, after Baghdad’s calls for a Muslim uprising against Iraq’s enemies, the Turkish government Monday asked one-third of the Iraqi Embassy personnel stationed in Turkey to go home.

Dev-Sol’s origins date to the 1970s, when it was one of the main leftist organizations active in violence that killed 5,000 people in Turkey. The group, suppressed by the 1980 military coup and banned through the 1980s, is once again winning support among frustrated students and alienated slum dwellers.

Turkey is still far better off than in the dark days of the 1970s, with a liberalized economy, freer travel and good communications. The U.S. Embassy is encouraging U.S. business leaders to stay in Turkey, but with a warning to keep their guard high and profile low.

Fearful foreign residents are hiding their cars, with their distinctive blue registration plates; changing routes to work, and often sending their families home.

Mozelle’s Turkish wife, Fatma, who is 35 and pregnant, had left Turkey some time ago so that their baby could be born in the United States, the local Anatolian news agency said.

Harry Cole, the U.S. consul in Adana, said that despite the Incirlik base’s involvement in the Gulf War, none of the more than 100 American residents have been advised to leave the city.

Many Turks in Adana have seemed supportive of the American war effort, a constant fact of life as each wave of U.S. bombers roars into the sky or returns over the main highway east of town.

Such feelings may have played a part in a visible normalization of security measures late last week at the gates of the base, now home to more than 4,000 U.S. service personnel and 96 warplanes.

Military personnel had begun to be allowed off base to go souvenir hunting in “The Alley,” a dusty row of shops, some of which already sport Desert Storm T-shirts with inscriptions such as “I Flew 6,000 Miles . . . to Smoke a Camel.”

In other developments Thursday involving terrorism, reported by wire services:

Bomb-disposal experts dismantled a time bomb planted under a French Embassy secretary’s car parked near the American College of Greece, Greek police said.

The incident, in an Athens suburb, 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.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in Thursday’s bombing.

In Peru, left-wing guerrillas claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen recent attacks on U.S. businesses and diplomatic offices, citing the Gulf War as the cause.

Three people died and 18 were wounded in the bombing and shooting attacks.

Rebels of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement said the attacks were part of an “anti-imperialist campaign started after . . . the Persian Gulf War began.”