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March 4, 2003
ROME -- Prosecutors said Monday that they doubt two Red Brigades terrorists involved in a deadly train shootout were about to stage an attack but said the suspects might well may have been laying the groundwork for a future assault.
The shooting Sunday on a Florence-bound local train killed a police officer and wanted Red Brigades member Mario Galesi, 37. Another police officer was injured.
Police arrested the other suspect, Nadia Desdemona Lioce, 43, who was wanted in the 1999 slaying in Rome of Labor Ministry adviser Massimo D'Antona, the first alleged Red Brigades attack in 11 years.
Florence prosecutor Francesco Fleury said the pair had only one gun, making it unlikely an attack was imminent as some investigators and officials had suggested.
The shooting fueled fears that the Red Brigades leftist group, which terrorized Italy in the 1970s and '80s and resumed killings a few years ago, had added recruits and was plotting to strike again.
A flier with the Red Brigades' trademark five-pointed star was found Monday at a train station near Parma, claiming responsibility for the shooting and commemorating Galesi, state-run RAI said. The flier could not be authenticated, the broadcaster said.
The shootout Sunday began after two policemen on the train asked the couple for identity documents. The Interior Ministry described the identity checks on the train as routine. However, it is rare to see police aboard trains do such random checks.