Greek terror group: We shot policeman

Greece’s most militant terror group has claimed responsibility for shooting and critically injuring a 21-year-old policeman, according to a long statement published Thursday in a local newspaper. Revolutionary Struggle, best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade against the U.S. Embassy in Athens two years ago, said its attack against a riot police unit earlier this month was in “retaliation to the cowardly murder” of a teenage boy in December.

The shooting sparked the country’s worst riots in decades with youths waging weeks of running battles against police, destroying scores of shops and banks and causing an estimated $1.3 billion in damages. Fanned by mounting discontent over government scandals, rising unemployment and economic austerity measures, the demonstrations spread to 10 Greek cities in the most violent shows of civil disobedience in years.

In an 11-page terror tract entitled “Bullets against Bullets,” and published in the Pondiki weekly newspaper, Revolutionary Struggle warned of additional attacks against police and rallied support for its armed struggle. “The most important reason behind our action [against the riot police unit] was to show not only how necessary but how effective armed action is today,” the group said. “We may not have the training or ammunition that cops do, but we are determined and armed with the faith that an armed confrontation with the establishment and its henchmen is not only desired but attainable”. Police officials contacted Thursday said the proclamation, which features a detailed description of the January 5 shooting of a riot police unit in central Athens, was being examined by counter-terrorism experts at the country’s national police headquarters.

Authorities had already linked Revolutionary Struggle to the attack but the far-left cell had not officially assumed responsibility. Earlier this week, an anonymous man telephoned the offices of the Pondiki weekly satirical newspaper to inform editors of the location of the proclamation.

“We found it wrapped in a nylon bag and tucked on the windowsill of a derelict home on the outskirts of Athens,” said Pondiki publisher Andonis Delatollas. Revolutionary Struggle, ranked by the U.S. State Department as one of the most wanted terrorist groups in its 2008 report on global terrorism, also claimed responsibility for opening fire on a riot police van December 23 and an ill-fated bomb attack on Shell’s headquarters in Athens.

The elusive group emerged in September 2003, about a year after authorities dismantled the country’s deadliest terror group, called November 17.

CNN