Anarchist group claims bombing
The militant anarchist group «Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire» yesterday claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last Saturday on the Athens home of a former deputy minister and warned the newly appointed National Intelligence Service (EYP) chief that he could be the next target. In a proclamation posted on the Internet, the group – whose previous actions had been confined to gas canister attacks on police and government targets – described Saturday’s attack in great detail, including how the explosive device was planted in the backyard of the home of former Deputy Interior Minister Panayiotis Hinofotis in Palaio Faliro, and providing insights into how the 2-kilo bomb was made, including details about its wiring. The statement added that the attack, which caused no injuries, was a follow-up to last December’s unrest triggered by the police killing of a teenager in the central Athens district of Exarchia. It noted that Hinofitis had been in office at the time and had targeted «revolutionary groups.» The group added that it would continue with its action and warned of an attack on Dimitris Papangelopoulos, recently appointed as head of EYP, whose home they had targeted in February when he had been a prosecutor. Police expressed concern that the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire had «graduated» to a full-blown terrorist group. «We had expected an escalation of the group’s actions following its gas canister bomb attacks on two buildings in Attica and Thessaloniki where new police divisions were to be set up,» a source at the police’s counterterrorism department said. He expressed fears that the group’s knowledge of bomb-making techniques suggested links with more established terrorist groups.
