Anti-terrorist Policeman Killed In Athens Gun Attack

A Greek anti-terrorist policeman was shot dead by two unknown attackers in central Athens, reports said Wednesday. The officer was sitting in his car guarding a witness at the time of the attack in the Ano Patissia area of central Athens.

The witness was reportedly involved in a case against a left-wing terrorist group.

Reports said the officer was shot twenty times. The attackers fled the scene by motorcycle.

Since January, three police officers have been shot by unknown assailants while on duty.

Several urban guerrillas' organisations have emerged in the months since 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos died during an altercation between youth gangs and police.

A group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for the June 5th bombing of a tax office. Meanwhile, the Coalition of Anarchists carried out attacks on three Athens banks, and Molotov cocktails were thrown at a police station in Patras.

In May, a time bomb exploded outside the offices of an investment company, and a group dubbed Popular Will sent out a pamphlet saying it was responsible. It also claimed credit for a March bombing in central Athens.

Prior to that, the Sect of Revolutionaries staged attacks against police and a TV broadcaster.

So far, no one has died or been injured.

The Sect of Revolutionaries left a manifesto at the grave of Grigoropoulos, warning that it planned a series of attacks against policemen, state officials and journalists. It also said only pure luck prevented any casualties in their February 3rd attack on the police precinct in Korydallos, a neighborhood in the western suburbs of Athens.

In that attack, the group fired off a semi-automatic rifle and threw a grenade, which failed to detonate. The manifesto made it clear that the perpetrators have no qualms about taking lives.

The second appearance of the group took place on February 17th, with an assault on offices of the TV station "Alter". One of Greece's top newspapers, Ta Nea, received a phone call from the group, saying it was now focusing on the mass media -- mainly reporters.

A manifesto then appeared outside the house of Amalia Ginaki, one of three persons taken hostage by an escaped convict during a four hour stand-off in September 1998. The group accused the mass media of "tele-managing" the hostage crisis -- the first incident of its kind to be broadcast live on television in Greece -- and contributing to the kidnapper's later "assassination" by police.

Not only media anchors, but cameramen and technicians were fair game for future terrorist attacks, the group warned. Police believe it may be linked to Revolutionary Struggle, the November 17th spinoff which carried out the 2007 US Embassy attack. Both organisations appear to share the same arsenal.

Greek police have again asked British police officials from Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist division to participate in a task force.

from http://www.emportal.rs

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