Palestinian sought over Iran embassy attack in Oslo
OSLO, May 30 — Norwegian police said a Palestinian man had claimed responsibilty for throwing fire extinguisher powder into Iran's embassy on Friday and setting fire to his car outside the building, but they ruled out terrorism.At least the man was right about Iran, Hizbollah and al Qaeda hampering the peace process. But if he tried to attack the Israeli embassy five years ago, why was he free to do such a thing again?
Police said the man, who had a psychiatric history, had telephoned them and admitted to the attack that forced one embassy employee to be taken to hospital with breathing troubles from the powder.
They said they failed to get the man to surrender, but hoped to arrest him soon after charging him with vandalism in his absence, a crime carrying a jail sentence of up to one year.
''This is not a terrorist attack,'' Deputy Police Commissioner Roger Andresen said.
Andresen said the same man had made an attempt to set a car ablaze outside the Israeli embassy in Olso five years ago.
The attack was the first on an embassy in Norway since a purported audio tape by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda listed the country last week alongside the United States, Britain and Australia as a target for attacks.
Governments around the world have been on alert for packages containing white powder since a series of anthrax attacks in the United States killed five people in 2001.
The Aftenposten daily newspaper reported the man had also phoned it to say Palestinians needed a state of their own and that Iran was hampering the process by supporting groups such as Hizbollah and al Qaeda