A plainclothes policeman working as chauffeur foiled a terrorist ambush Friday in Rome–the second attack in 10 days by Italy`s resurfaced urban guerrillas.
The policeman opened fire on the four-member terrorist group–two men and two women–killing one of the women and possibly injuring a second terrorist. Their target was Dr. Antonio Da Empoli, appointed a week ago as head of Prime Minister Bettino Craxi`s Economic Affairs Department. He escaped with bullet wounds in his arm and leg. Friday night he was reported in a satisfactory condition.
The attack, reminiscent of the days of the Red Brigades a few years ago, occurred as the Tourist Ministry launched a campaign to convince American tourists that Italy is a safe country. According to tourist agencies 50 percent of American hotel and tour reservations for this year have been canceled over the last month.
It also occurred 10 days after Red Brigades terrorists assassinated former Florence Mayor Lando Conti on his way home from work.
Police Friday night identified the dead woman as Wilma Monaco, 28, wife of jailed terrorist Gianni Perusi and close friend of Barbara Balzerani, the Red Brigades leader who last week announced in a Naples courtroom a series of new attacks against ”the state.”
According to police, Empoli left his villa behind the Foreign Ministry on Rome`s northern outskirts shortly after 9 a.m. Friday. As he usually does, his police escort (who is also his chauffeur) drove him to a newsstand to buy his daily papers.
The terrorists, on motorscooters and with woolen hoods over their faces, opened fire from behind the newsstand. But the chauffeur snatched his machine pistol from under his seat and fired back, killing Monaco and scattering the others.
The terrorists left a leaflet at the scene of the ambush. In it a new organization which calls itself the Union of Communist Combatants took credit for the attack.
In a phone call to a newspaper the organization said Empoli was chosen as a target because he worked out a financial bill which Parliament passed this week ”against the interests of the working class.”
Italian President Francesco Cossiga condemned the new attack and said,
”We all know that terrorism is finished in Italy but there are terrorist leftovers who must not be undervalued and against whom we have to fight.”
Interior Ministry sources said 295 left-wing terrorists are still on the wanted list and 196 alleged terrorists had to be set free on bail because the period they can be held without trial had expired.
