<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile — Successor to November 17 terror group believed exploiting unrest in Greece

Successor to November 17 terror group believed exploiting unrest in Greece

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 Free Headline Alerts

ATHENS — An anti-Western insurgency group has resumed activities in Greece.

The Revolutionary Struggle has renewed attacks against Greek police after a lull of nearly two years. The Greek insurgency group, believed to be the successor of the dismantled November 17 organization, was said to have claimed responsibility for the shooting of a Greek police officer on Jan 5 amid riots in Athens.

"This is a group clearly trying to murder police," Greek police commander Vassilis Tsiatouras said.

Officials said the Revolutionary Struggle, which relayed its claim in a telephone call to a Greek television station, could be one of several anti-Western groups that have sought to exploit the anti-police riots over the last month. They said some of the groups were believed to have changed their names to avoid arrest.

The riots, mostly by young Greeks, have begun to include the use of firearms. In January 2009, police were attacked several times with light arms fire by those who appeared to be demonstrators.

The Revolutionary Struggle, deemed a terrorist group by the European Union, was first reported in 2003. In 2007, the group claimed responsibility for the firing of an anti-tank rocket toward the U.S. embassy. Both Greece and the United States have offered a $2 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest of leaders of the Revolutionary Struggle.

Officials said the Revolutionary Struggle was also believed involved in a submachine gun attack on police. They said the 9 mm weapon was also said to have been fired toward a police station in Athens in 2007.

The government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has reaffirmed its determination to prevent the resumption of the left-wing insurgency in Greece. Anti-Western attacks in Greece virtually ended after the dismantling of the November 17 group, a leading insurgency network, in 2002.

"They will soon understand that our democracy is strong and our society is fortified," Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said.

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