EU Letter Bomb Spree Continues

Two letter bombs addressed to senior members of the European Parliament burst into flames and another was intercepted at the legislature on Monday in a continuing string of mail attacks on European Union targets that have yet to cause injuries.

A bomb in the Manchester, England, office of British Socialist legislator Gary Titley caused minor damage when a staff member opened a parcel. A similar package took flame in the Brussels office of German Hans-Gert Poettering, the head of the conservative European People's Party.

A third letter bomb addressed to a Spanish conservative member of the EU legislature was neutralized by bomb disposal experts from the Belgian military at the Parliament's Brussels offices.

The two letter bombs found in Brussels on Monday were identical in form and postmarked Dec. 22 in Bologna, Italy, from which the earlier attacks over the past two weeks are believed to have originated.

Investigators have zeroed in on an Italian anarchist group — the "Informal Anarchic Federation" — as the likely source of wave of package bombs sent to offices in four countries. Security has been increased at European Union institutions.

The other bombs have been sent to European Commission President Romano Prodi in Bologna, Italy; the head of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany; and two institutions in The Hague, Netherlands.

The padded envelope sent to Poettering burst into flames when a member of his staff opened it Monday morning.

"Luckily, she was not injured," said a party spokeswoman Fiona Kearns. Poettering was on his way to Brussels from Germany when the attack happened.

Poettering heads the conservative European People's Party, the largest faction in the European Parliament.

The other bomb, sent to Jose Ignacio Salafranca, who heads the Spanish branch of the EPP, was neutralized by bomb-disposal experts before it was opened.

"It was identical in every respect — the same size, posted on the same day and from the same place," said David Harley, a spokesman for Parliament President Pat Cox.

Authorities also were checking on a suspicious package sent to Jonathan Evans, another parliament member from the European People's Party.

Outside the Parliament's buildings, three firefighter trucks and bomb disposal squads were parked outside the legislature in central Brussels and plainclothes policemen were seen moving inside carrying metal boxes.

After the packages were found, parliament staff was told to handle mail with care. Over the Christmas holidays, the EU institution received about 100,000 letters and parcels.

The Poettering package appeared to contain a book, much like the one that blew up at Prodi's home on Dec. 27 at the start of the bombing wave.

European officials focused suspicion on the anarchist group after it claimed responsibility for two time bombs that exploded outside Prodi's house on Dec. 21, causing a small fire.

In a letter to left-leaning Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica on Dec. 23, the anarchist group said it had planted the bombs to "hit at the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order."