Syria Charges Bid to Link It to Paris Blasts

PARIS â€”  Syria’s foreign minister accused France on Tuesday of instigating a media campaign aimed at linking Syria to a wave of deadly terrorist bombings in Paris that has claimed a ninth life.

“We are asking that we be treated as French law treats suspects under common law--that all suspects are presumed innocent,� Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh said in an interview with the Paris newspaper Le Monde. “If there is such proof, give it to us. If not, stop these grave accusations.�

He made the remarks in criticizing speculation in French newspapers that Syria could be a possible backer of terrorists trying to force France to free a Lebanese guerrilla leader, who comes from a northern Lebanese town under Syrian control. Iran and Syria also have been mentioned as backers.

The death toll from the five bombings in Paris rose to nine Tuesday when a police officer died of injuries sustained when a bomb that had been hidden in a bouquet of flowers exploded in his face Sept. 14.

Police officer Bertrand Gauthier, 29, helped another policeman and a headwaiter carry the bomb to an underground parking lot from the crowded Pub Renault restaurant on the Champs Elysees after an alert waiter spotted the deadly bouquet under a table.

Before they could get away, the bomb exploded, killing one officer and leaving Gauthier and headwaiter Jean-Claud Blanger in critical condition.

Responsibility for the bombings have been claimed by groups using different names in an attempt to secure the freedom of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 35, leader of the leftist Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Faction, and two other convicted Middle Eastern terrorists.

Abdallah is serving a four-year term for using false passports and posession of arms. He has been charged with complicity in the assassination of an Israeli diplomat and an American military attache in 1982.

French police have named Abdallah’s four brothers and five members of his group as key suspects in the bombings.