The World - News from April 22, 1988

The Red Brigades killers of a close aide to Italian Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita reportedly are planning a new guerrilla offensive. The Rome newspaper, Il Tempo, said it found a communique from the guerrillas--the first since the weekend killing of Sen. Roberto Ruffilli--wrapped in a magazine after an anonymous telephone call. The communique said the guerrillas had staged a “strategic retreat” after they were largely crushed by a police crackdown in the early 1980s. “This is the reconstruction of revolutionary forces . . . to prepare the proletarian ground for a prolonged clash with the state,” the statement said. It also indicated that Ruffilli was killed because of his role in advising De Mita on political reforms.