Officials on Tuesday linked the bombings of an LDS Church chapel and a Jewish synagogue, which caused no injuries and minor damage, to the Persian Gulf war.
Two bombs went off Sunday at an LDS church run by American missionaries in Anapolis, 800 miles northwest of Rio, the government said. The previously unknown "Palestine Council" claimed responsibility for the bombing.On the same day, a homemade bomb shattered windows at a synagogue in Porto Alegre, 950 miles southwest of Rio, police said. No group claimed responsibility, but police characterized the attack as "a warning clearly related to the gulf war."
"We've never had anything like this before," said police chief Joao Carlos Carivali of Porto Alegre's 10th precinct.
Carivali said police reinforced protection at the city's eight synagogues.
Justice Minister Jarbas Passarinho said Tuesday there was "not yet enough information to characterize the incidents as terrorist attempts."
Relations between Jews and Arab descendants in Brazil are generally peaceful. Most Arab immigrants to Brazil in past centuries have been Christians from Lebanon, Egypt and Syria.