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BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Argentine Jews this week commemorated the fifth anniversary of the March 17, 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy here with bitter criticism of the government for failing to capture those responsible.

Some 1,500 people gathered Monday across the street from the Argentine Supreme Court to criticize the government's inability to solve the car bombing, which left 29 dead and some 100 wounded.

Israel's ambassador to Argentina, Itzhak Aviran, was the sole speaker — and he did not mince words. Looking directly at the gathering of Argentine officials, he said, "Any country has a duty to protect its guests. A diplomatic mission is a guest. Our mission, and I say this with pain, was not protected by Argentina.

"This country should capture those who helped the bombers here," added Aviran. "But unfortunately, after five years, there is nothing to report."

Argentine officials have also been unable to solve the July 18, 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association, also known as AMIA, which left 86 dead and more than 300 wounded.

Priebke may receive house-arrest release

ROME (JTA) — Former Nazi SS Captain Erich Priebke will be released into house arrest pending a retrial for his role in a World War II massacre outside Rome.

Judicial sources said Priebke, 83, who according to his defense is suffering declining mental health, might be placed in a convent.

He has been jailed since his extradition in 1995 from Argentina, where he had lived freely for nearly half a century.

Priebke was tried last year by a military court for his involvement in the 1944 Nazi massacre of 335 civilians, including some 75 Jews, at the Ardeatine caves south of Rome. The military court Aug. 1 found Priebke guilty but ordered him freed because of extenuating circumstances, including a statute of limitations.

This verdict caused an uproar and Priebke was rearrested.

French neo-Nazis start trial for attack

PARIS (JTA) — Four French neo-Nazis went on trial this week after being accused of going on an anti-Semitic rampage in a Jewish cemetery in 1990.

The four — Yannick Garnier, 27; Bertrand Nouveau, 28; Patrick Laonegro, 31; and Olivier Fimbry, 28 — are accused of damaging 34 graves and unearthed the body of a Jewish man, simulating his sodomy with a beach umbrella.