Left-Wing Group Behind Attack On Athens US Embassy
Left-Wing Group Behind Attack On Athens US Embassy
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Leftist guerrillas who last year tried to assassinate the country's culture minister were blamed for a rocket- propelled grenade attack Friday on the US embassy in Athens.
'We received one or two anonymous calls this morning that a left- wing group, Revolutionary Struggle, was behind the attack,' Public Order Minister Byron Polydoras told reporters outside the embassy.
The blast shattered windows of the embassy, one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the city and the scene of repeated protests, and in various buildings nearby, causing panic. However, no one was injured in the pre-dawn attack.
The rocket grenade was launched from across the street of the embassy, which is surrounded by a three-metre high steel fence, probably from a nearby apartment building or a van.
The attack was seen as the worst assault on the embassy in the last 10 years. In February 1996, unidentified assailants fired a rocket at the embassy compound, causing minor damage to diplomatic vehicles and surrounding buildings.
Polydoras said that one of the telephone calls was made to the company responsible for securing the embassy. He also said that a special task force would be set up to lead the investigation.
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni went to the embassy to speak with US Ambassador Charles Ries, and condemned the attack.
Greece's opposition parties also denounced the attack, saying it would hurt the country's image abroad.
The grenade, said to have been of European manufacture, reportedly landed inside the toilets on the third floor of the building, slightly damaging the ceiling and glass panelling.
Ries told reporters that there were no injuries from the blast. 'We did not expect anything like this,' he said, adding: 'I am treating it as a very serious attack.'
Dozens of police cars had cordoned off all roads around the embassy, including a major boulevard outside the building, immediately after the attack occurred just before 6 a.m.
Almost five hours afterwards, roads around the embassy were open for traffic but pedestrians were denied access. Greek anti-terrorist police were at the scene.
'We heard a loud explosion a little before 6 a.m.,' said one resident. Another witness said his car rocked from side to side as he was driving to a nearby hospital. The explosion caused glass to shatter in several homes opposite the embassy.
Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility last May for a bomb attack on Greece's Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, and had warned at the time that more attacks would follow.
The remote-controlled bomb, which was planted near Voulgarakis' home was apparently intended to kill the minister as he went to work, but it caused only extensive damage, with no injuries.
The group said the attempted assassination was for Voulgariakis' role in two scandals which rocked the country during his term as public order minister.
These were a phone-tapping scandal, and accusations by 28 Pakistani immigrants that they were abducted and tortured by Greek and foreign intelligence agents following last year's London bombings.
The Revolutionary Struggle group has emerged as the country's most dangerous organization since the arrest of members of the deadly November 17 terrorist group prior to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
The group staged similar attacks in June and December 2005 on the labour and economics ministries in Athens injuring three people and causing extensive damage.
The economics ministry, located in the city's main Syntagma Square, approximately 100 metres from parliament, was closed at the time of the blast.
Anti-terrorism experts suggest that the group is composed of 'a younger generation of terrorists' imitating the methods of the defunct Greek extremist organizations November 17 and the Revolutionary People's Struggle.
November 17, which has killed US and other foreign diplomats in the past, was dismantled in 2002.
