Alas Chiricanas bombing
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The bombing of an Alas Chiricanas flight in Panama was a deadly terrorist attack that took place on July 19, 1994, one of a series of deadly attacks against Jewish people that year.
On July 19, an Embraer 110 Bandeirante flying between Colon and Panama City exploded, killing all 21 persons aboard. Twelve of the passengers were Jews. The wreckage was strewn about the Santa Rita Mountains. Panamanian officials assertained that the explosion was caused by a bomb, probably detonated by a suicide bomber who was also one of the passengers on the plane. A main reason for suspecting a bomb was that another terrorist attack against Jews took place in Argentina the day before: the AMIA Bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 86 people.
An organization using the name Ansar Allah, or Followers of God, issued a statement expressing support for the bombing, and it claimed the attack was a suicide operation by a person with an Arab name. Later it was determined the organization did not exist, and many point to Hezbollah as the culprit. Panama made no arrests in connection with the bombing, and even today the case is mostly unsolved and little talked about.
External links
- 10 years after Panama airline bomb, Jews are pained by lack of suspects (http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Panama+Jews+pained+decade+after+bomb&intcategoryid=2)
- Few clues, no certainty 10 years after Panama airline bombing killed 12 Jews (http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Few+clues+in+Panama+10+years+after+bombing&intcategoryid=2&SearchOptimize=Jewish+News)
- Acquittals in Argentine terror case cast a shadow across Panama (http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_10/issue_18/news_03.html)