Naples Car Bomb Kills Navy Woman, 4 Others : 4 Sailors Wounded, U.S. Says; Mideast Connection Suspected

NAPLES, Italy â€”  A car bomb exploded Thursday night in front of a club for U.S. military personnel in Naples, killing a U.S. Navy enlisted woman and four Italians and injuring at least 17 people, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast that happened shortly after 8 p.m. at the USO club.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the American woman was stationed at the Naval Communications Area Master Station in Naples. Lt. Janet Mescus, the spokeswoman, said the woman’s identity was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Italian media quoted officials as saying four Italians were also killed. One of the bodies at the club’s entrance was draped in a U.S. flag.

Lt. David Morris, a Navy spokesman in Naples, said three crewmen from the frigate Capodanno, based in Newport, R.I., and one from the frigate Paul, based in Mayport, Fla., were treated at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Naples. The ships are on routine deployment with 6th Fleet, Morris said.

The injured Paul crewman was identified as Chief Petty Officer Francisco A. Navalta, 39, of Castillejos, Zambales, Philippines. Those from the Capodanno were Petty Officer 3rd Class Craig Lee Trent, 22, of Gaither, Md.; Senior Chief Petty Officer Charles Fifer Roberts, 38, of East St. Louis, Ill., and Stanley Lawson, 27, an electronics technician whose hometown was not listed. Roberts was treated and released. The others were in stable condition.

Most in Basement

“Most of the (crew) members were in the basement (of the club) and avoided the full thrust of the blast,� Lt. Brian Cullin, another Navy spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon.

One of those hurt, a 27-year-old Italian woman, was reported in grave condition.

Investigators said Thursday’s blast destroyed the inside of the club and wrecked other cars on the street. The bomb apparently was hidden in a Fiat 127 auto that was ripped apart by the explosion.

Passers-by screamed and ran when the explosion occurred outside the club, which is in one of Naples’ busiest areas. The building is just off Piazza Municipio, about 200 yards from the waterfront.

Antonio Barrel, the inspector general of public security in Naples, told the ANSA news agency that authorities do not yet know if the car bomb was set by foreigners or Italians.

But ANSA also quoted an unidentified police official as saying “the Middle East connection seems most likely.�

Italian media noted that the blast occurred the day before the second anniversary of the U.S. bombing raids on Tripoli and Benghazi in retaliation for alleged Libyan involvement in the bombing of a nightclub in West Berlin that killed an American serviceman and a Turkish woman.

Last June, two homemade missiles were fired into the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in Rome, but no one was injured. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a group calling itself the “International Anti-Imperialist Brigade.�

In 1985, 38 people were injured in a grenade attack on a fashionable Rome cafe frequented by Americans. A Palestinian was arrested at the scene and later convicted.

A USO club in Barcelona, Spain, was attacked last Dec. 6 by an attacker with hand grenades who shouted “Long live Lebanon!� The blasts killed U.S. Navy Petty Officer Ronald C. Strong and injured nine other people.

The United Services Organization (USO) is a volunteer group that sponsors social clubs for American servicemen around the world.

The Navy has a major presence in Naples, headquarters for NATO’s southern command and the support center for the 6th Fleet. An average of 45 ships, 200 aircraft and over 23,000 people comprise the fleet.