Group warns of more attacks
The Revolutionary Struggle terror group yesterday vowed to continue a bombing campaign, targeting politicians, financiers and journalists, in a written proclamation claiming responsibility for two bombs planted outside branches of Citibank earlier this week and last month. «We intend to continue planting explosive devices with timing mechanisms,» the group said in a proclamation published in the left-wing Pontiki newspaper. The group said it had targeted the banks in Filothei and Kifissia, north of Athens, to fuel «revolt» in response to the global financial crisis. «We need to create a mass, revolutionary movement… so that this crisis signals the death of the system,» the proclamation said. A senior police officer noted a «shift to a more theoretical style in the proclamation» which he saw as «an effort to prove the existence of ideological motivation.» The group, best known for a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the US Embassy in January 2007, said it would target «the political and financial elite… and the police who guard them, not everyday citizens.» Another target would be «the paid hacks of those in power, journalists.» The group said its attacks were not aimed at harming citizens. A strong blast outside a bank in Filothei last week caused damage but no injuries while a car bomb outside Citibank’s Kifissia headquarters on February 18 (the proclamation said it contained 125 kilos of dynamite) failed to go off due to faulty wiring. If it had detonated, the impact would have been devastating, police said. «We would not carry out an attack without taking the necessary measures to protect citizens,» the proclamation said. It suggests that the newspapers that received warnings of last week’s attack in Filothei and an attack on Shell offices last October failed to take action. «This makes us ask whether they want victims in order to defame our struggle,» it said. In a related development, four senior counterterrorism police officers were suspended after a secret list of 82 potential «terror targets,» including 54 individuals and 28 facilities, was leaked to the press. A prosecutor has ordered an internal investigation into the leak.
