Anti-Mafia Judge, 5 Others Killed by Car Bomb in Sicily

PALERMO, Sicily â€”  A car bomb killed a leading anti-Mafia judge Sunday, and Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato pledged a strong response to those “at war with the state.â€�

Five bodyguards died with Paolo Borsellino, the chief public prosecutor in Palermo.

Police said another 20 people, including a police guard who survived, were injured when the car packed with dynamite exploded as the judge was walking outside an apartment building where his mother and sister live.

Borsellino’s death was the second devastating blow dealt to Italy’s struggle against the Mafia in just under two months.

Borsellino was a close colleague of Italy’s leading anti-Mafia fighter, Giovanni Falcone, who was killed with his wife and three bodyguards when explosives blew up a stretch of highway outside Palermo on May 23.

Amato said: “Judge Borsellino had told a friend two days ago he was fighting against time. He feared (recent anti-Mafia measures) would be defeated in Parliament.

“I say to his murderers and to those who like them who are at war with the state that those norms will stay,� Amato added.

RAI television said the explosion was heard for miles around. Black smoke could be seen for blocks, and firefighters rushed to the scene, near a convention site being used for Palermo’s Mediterranean Fair.

The 52-year-old Borsellino was widely considered a front-runner to head a new anti-Mafia judicial authority planned by the Rome government.