ATTACKERS FIRE ROCKET AT EMBASSY OF A DESIGNATED GLOBAL TERRORIST Attackers fire rocket at U.S. embassy in Athens By Karolos Grohmann Reuters January 12, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/ts_nm/greece_explosion_dc_10
ATHENS (Reuters) - Suspected leftist guerrillas fired a rocket at the U.S. embassy in Athens on Friday but no one was hurt in the blast, police and government officials said. In the most serious attack against the mission in 10 years, the small rocket launched from across the street shattered windows and woke up nearby residents in the central Athens area at 5:58 AM (0358 GMT). "There are one or two anonymous phone calls which claim that the Revolutionary Struggle was behind the attack," Public Order Minister Byron Polydoras told reporters outside the embassy. "Most likely, it is an act by local perpetrators." The leftist guerrilla group has emerged as the most serious domestic threat since the dismantling of the deadly November 17 group in 2002. It claimed an assassination attempt against Greece's culture minister in May and a bomb at the Economy Ministry which wounded two people and damaged buildings 13 months ago. "I am treating this as a very serious attack," U.S. ambassador to Athens, Charles Ries, told reporters outside the mission. "The embassy was attacked in a senseless act of violence. There were no injuries." Police said the 2.65 mm, east European-made rocket landed inside a toilet on the third floor, slightly damaging the glass facade and ceiling. No launcher has been found. ATTACK CONDEMNED "It was a huge explosion, the ground shook. I woke up and rushed to the balcony to see what happened," a local resident, who was not identified, told Greek TV. Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni rushed to the embassy, often the target of Greek protests and demonstrations, to meet Ries and condemn the attack. "Such acts have cost us dearly in the past," she told reporters. "The government will do everything in its power so they are not repeated." In February 1996, November 17 claimed responsibility for a rocket attack at the back of the compound, which caused minor damage to three diplomatic cars and some surrounding buildings. Once Greece's biggest security threat, the group was dismantled two years before the Athens 2004 Olympics. It had staged hundreds of bombings, shootings and rocket attacks, and killed U.S. and other foreign diplomats in Greece. Dozens of police cars surrounded the embassy and hundreds of police cordoned off roads in the area, including a boulevard in front of the mission. Police helicopters hovered overhead. The heavily guarded embassy building, surrounded by a 3-metre-high (9-feet-high) steel fence, has guards posted at every entrance and at street corners around it. In November last year, Greek riot police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators marching to the embassy, chanting slogans including "Bush the butcher, out of Iraq" and "The USA is the real terrorist." http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/ts_nm/greece_explosion_dc_10
