TERROR IN OKLAHOMA CITY : Outraged World Leaders Offer Condolences to U.S.

A world weary of terrorist attacks reacted with horror to the deadly car bombing that gripped America’s seemingly insulated heartland with a strange new fear.

Israel’s prime minister sent a message to President Clinton expressing sorrow over the Wednesday bombing, which devastated a federal office building in Oklahoma City.

The blast was big news throughout the Middle East, which has suffered dozens of similar attacks.

“How deeply we share the sorrow and the pain with the President of the United States and the people of the United States because of the terrible terror act in Oklahoma City,” said Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel.

“Our hearts and feelings are with the families of the victims. Terror must be cut off before terror will hit again,” he said.

Rabin, citing “the very large and sad Israeli experience in such cases,” said his government was ready to help in whatever way it could and had extended that offer to U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk.

Asked about the Israeli offer, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said: “We will, of course, rely on any additional resource that can possibly be involved and be utilized appropriately in bringing these people to justice.”

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali issued a statement saying he was “horrified at the loss of innocent lives, especially young children, caused by this cowardly attack.”

In Canada, authorities played down that country’s vulnerability to such an attack. But a security guard at a government office building in the Canadian capital of Ottawa acknowledged that anything could happen--at any time.

“Anyone could park a car full of dynamite next door,” said the guard, who declined to give his name.

In a letter to Clinton, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said “the hopes and prayers of all Canadians are with those who have suffered injuries and who have lost loved ones in this terrible disaster.

“Canadians were shocked and outraged as they learned of the magnitude of the human and physical destruction left in the wake of this bombing incident.”

The bombing quickly became the biggest story in Britain, leading the television news broadcasts. The British Broadcasting Corp. compared the bombing to the terrorism that has rocked Northern Ireland and Spain’s Basque region.

Japan was preoccupied with its own problems. But the U.S. attack still ranked high in network news shows that began with the latest on Wednesday’s Tokyo subway gas poisoning and the religious sect suspected in a similar attack last month.

Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, in Washington on an official visit, said Australians were deeply distressed by the bombing and hoped that the “perpetrators of this outrage can and will be brought swiftly to justice.”

“The nature of the relationship between our two peoples is such that an event like this really is like deaths in the family,” Evans said.