Rome Under Siege From Terror Bombs

Just before 11 a.m. on Dec. 23 in the mailroom of the Swiss Embassy in Rome, a parcel bomb exploded, blowing up the right hand of a 53-year-old embassy functionary and embedding a steel bolt in his chest. An hour later, another parcel bomb exploded at the Chilean Embassy, injuring a worker there and, as the ambassador described, “splattering blood everywhere.” Suspicious packages also were found at the Ukrainian and Slovenian embassies that both proved false alarms. Sirens blew, streets were closed and sidewalk barriers were erected all across Rome’s tony embassy neighborhoods on the eve of one of the most celebrated holiday weeks in this city. On Christmas Day, heightened security marked the pope’s annual “Urbi et Orbi” message to Rome and the world with riot police and anti-bomb vehicles parked a few hundred feet from St. Peter’s Square.