W. German state official assassinated by terrorists

What may be the first terrorist assassination in West Germany since 1977 accurred May 11 in Frankfurt, Monitor correspondent Elizabeth Pond reports. In a seemingly well-planned attack Hessian State Economics and Transportation Minister Heinz Herbert Karry was shot in his home.

Observers speculate that the assassination was in reprisal for the death in prison of Sigurd Debus, the hunger-striking terrorist, last month. If so, the implication is that the anarchist-terrorist network is too weak to attack well-guarded national leaders, but can attack lesser politicians.

The last terrorist kidnapping and murder here was that of industrialist Hanns-Ma rtin Schleyer in fall of 1977.