Israel Blames Iran for Argentine Bombing : Terrorism: Rabin calls on world to crack down on Islamic extremists. More than 70 people still missing in Buenos Aires blast.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Tuesday blamed radical, Iranian-backed Islamic groups for bombing a Jewish community center in Argentina and called on the world to mount a campaign to “strike at this viper and crush its skull.”

Rabin said Israeli intelligence received warnings that Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored Muslim group, would seek revenge somewhere in the world for “blows it had suffered from the Israeli army in Lebanon” and that “it is clear where the trail leads” from Monday’s bombing in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine government said at least 26 people were killed and 127 injured Monday when the blast transformed a seven-story building--which had as many as 200 people in it at the time--into a heap of mangled steel and masonry. Jewish leaders in Buenos Aires reported late Tuesday that the death toll had climbed to 34, with 147 people hurt.

The explosion destroyed nearby cars and heavily damaged businesses as far as a block away.

Wire service reports indicated that, as of Tuesday, more than 70 people were still unaccounted for at the site, where three survivors had been pulled from the wreckage overnight. Rescuers freed a fourth victim whose legs were pinned for 31 hours under the rubble.

“The world community must actively organize operations, cooperate both with respect to secure intelligence and in actions against the extremist Muslim terrorist groups,” Rabin said, reacting to the Buenos Aires bombing. “If this is not done, I fear that we will be victimized each time that those who wish to attack do so. . . . They have these capabilities, and they are deployed around the world.”

A special concern for Israel, Rabin said, are Jews who live in other countries where they could become targets for revenge attacks against Israel.

“This again underscores the commonality of Jewish fate,” he said. “It obligates the countries in which Jews live to take appropriate steps for increasing security for Jews, certainly in those countries where a radical Islamic terrorist infrastructure exists.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, speaking to his Parliament, vowed, “The government of Israel will never forget and will never forgive those who carry out these attacks and those who assist them.”

At the request of Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem, Rabin dispatched Israeli intelligence agents and police bomb specialists to help with the investigation and to begin the hunt for those responsible. Israel also sent military rescue specialists to aid in the search for survivors.

Menem, who blamed the bombing on outsiders, added that it is possible that “minuscule” Argentine elements helped. He also speculated that Islamic fundamentalists bent on destroying the Middle East peace process carried out the attack, Reuters news service said.

The Associated Press quoted him as saying that an Iraqi man carrying an expired Brazilian passport was detained Monday night while trying to cross the border to Brazil in Paso de los Libres, about 620 miles north of Buenos Aires.

Peres also blamed Iran for the Buenos Aires bombing. “Iran with its lies, hostility and hatred is trying to turn the Jewish people into a collective Salman Rushdie,” Peres said, referring to the death sentence pronounced by Iran on the British author. “It is a terrible regime, and I am sure it will cause more trouble in the future.”

In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied any involvement in the bombing at the headquarters for Argentina’s two main Jewish organizations: the Argentine Israelite Mutual Assn., a social aid group, and the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Assns., an umbrella group for Jewish organizations.

Iranian spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi was quoted by Tehran Radio as condemning “terrorist acts against innocent people from any religion and nationality.”

Brig. Gen. Yigal Pressler, Rabin’s adviser on terrorism, said concerted action was now needed to avert future attacks. “The answer to attacks of the type that occurred in Argentina is not defensive activity,” Pressler said. “Another fence, another roadblock, another guard will not help.

“The countries of the world must cooperate intensively to foil Iranian and Islamic terrorism,” he said. “It is essential to penetrate them, to collect intelligence, to uncover intentions and to foil attacks. Cooperation among countries should be tightened, and this matter must take on significance and importance.”

Jacques Neriah, a retired Israeli intelligence officer and a former Rabin adviser on Arab countries, said that “what goes on between ourselves and Hezbollah cannot be settled except by a broad consensus in our relations with Syria and Lebanon. This issue needs to be brought up in the negotiations.”

Neriah also warned that, in planning its operations against Hezbollah and other radical groups in Lebanon, the Israeli army “must take into account that the reaction might not necessarily be made at an Israeli target, but could be made against any Jewish target.”

Although noting that the protection of Jews in other countries is the responsibility of those governments, Pressler and other Israeli officials indicated that considerable thought is being given here on providing more security advice to Jewish communities abroad.