PLO Targets Shultz

JERUSALEM--The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) claimed responsibility for a car packed with explosives that was found yesterday near a hotel where Secretary of State George P. Shultz was staying. The guerrilla group said Shultz was the target.

Police, who defused the bomb safely, said the car had been found accidentally after it was abandoned by its driver. There were no reports of arrests.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the bomb was well off the route the secretary took from the hotel to Israeli government offices.

Yasser Arafat's mainstream Palestinian guerrilla group, Fatah, said in a statement in Beirut that "the driver had an accident and the car crashed into a power pole about 30 minutes before the time set for the bomb to explode."

"The driver deserted the vehicle and managed to escape," the communique said.

In a communique telephoned to The Associated Press office in west Beirut, Fatah said its military command "instructed the Limassol martyrs group to park a bomb-laden car in front of the Hilton Hotel in Jerusalem targeting Shultz, the messenger of imperialism."

Yosef Yehudai, the Jerusalem police chief, said the bomb apparently was intended to explode at a nearby commercial center to protest Shultz's mission.