Berlin, March 20, IRNA -- German police lifted a Thursday morning     
bomb alert at the United States embassy in Berlin, media reports said.
    Security forces at the heavily guarded embassy, located in        
downtown Berlin, discovered a mysterious black bag near the compound, 
only hours after the start of an American air raid on Iraq.           
    Police cordoned off nearby streets and called a bomb squad to     
blow up the bag.                                                      
    The bomb squad, using a jet of water, destroyed the bag, however  
it contained only loose papers in it.                                 
    Meanwhile, authorities stepped up security precautions at all     
American, British and Israeli installations across Germany as a       
result of the US war in Iraq.                                         
OT/BH/AR                                                              
End