Red Brigades vow to avenge killings

Press, 1 April 1980, Page 9

Red Brigades vow to avenge killings

NZPA-Reuter Genoa The Red Brigades have repeated defiant threats to avenge the killing of four of their comrades in a raid which the police say may have wiped out their Genoa group. ; . A leaflet marked with the Brigades’ five-pointed star and found in Genoa admitted that last Friday’s police raid on a two-room hideout, believed to be ' their Genoa headquarters, was a major blow.

The Brigades used the victims’ apparent noms de guerre — Roberto, Cecilia, Pasquale, and Antonio — and said their deaths would not go unpunished. Italy’s mast feared political extremists have already

pledged to kill ten Carabinieri para-military policemen for each of their , dead comrades. The leaflet, which the police are treating as authentic, added weight to claims that the highly active Genoa cell had been crucially damaged. “Roberto” and “Antonio” were described in the leaflet as “members of the strategic direction of our organisation.” t

A daring but muddled guerrilla operation in the northern university city of Padua also seemed linked to the Genoa killings. A group of seven youths held six soldiers prisoner, wounding one of them, in an arms raid on a barracks.

They sprayed Red Brigades slogans on walls before escaping in an army truck. It was later abandoned with all the stolen weapons inside. The police were unwilling to confirm that it was a •genuine Red Brigades attack, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Padua is not a known centre for the Brigades, although other violent groups ■ are thought to have sympathisers there. In Rome yesterday, several thousand Leftists gathered to hear leaders of the student rebellion of the late 1960 s condemn terrorism. The demonstration’s slogan was “Neither with the State, nor with the Red Brigades.” .