Blast in Libyan house

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 6

Blast in Libyan house

NZPA-Reuter Addis Ababa An explosion had ripped through a house occupied by Libyans in Addis Ababa, killing five Libyans and one Ethiopian, diplomatic sources said yesterday. The blast had occurred in a bungalow in the residen-’ tial district of Nakanissa. The cause of the blast was not known. Staff at the Libyan Embassy were not available for comment and an Ethiopian Information Ministry official said that he did not expect the Government to make a statement.

The diplomatic sources said that the house was occupied by several Libyans whose identities were not known and who drove cars without diplomatic licence plates. It was often visited by a Libyan Embassy official car, they said. Ethiopian security staff arrived soon after the blast and questioned neighbours. The house is opposite the Indonesian Embassy and the residence of the Papal Nuncio. Diplomats in Tripoli said that life in the Libyan capital had returned to normal yesterday after a battle on

Wednesday that Libyan exiles in London said had been an attempt to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gadaffi.

The official Libyan news agency, Jana, said that security forces had killed guerrillas who held women and children hostage in a block of flats in the capital. The diplomats said that they had no indication of what had happened, apart from the report carried by Jana. The agency later said that Colonel Gadaffi had attended a meeting on Wednesday of military revolutionary committee members after watching a horse race.