NEWS

Bomb targets gov’t media HQ

Officers of the police’s counter-terrorism department expressed their conviction over the weekend that the increasingly active terrorist group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire was behind Friday night’s bomb blast outside the government’s press and media office in the Athens district of Kallithea but there had been no claim of responsibility for the attack by late yesterday. The time bomb detonated outside the offices of the General Secretariat of Communication & Information just before midnight on Friday, causing damage to adjacent buildings and parked cars but no injuries. About 15 minutes before the bloodless blast, anonymous callers had telephoned warnings to two private television channels and a newspaper. The police were briefed and cordoned off the area. The procedure and the type of bomb used are reminiscent of the bomb blast outside Parliament on January 9, according to police, who are still seeking the perpetrators of that attack, claimed by the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire. The government spokesman reacted to Friday night’s attack in a statement on state television. «Certain cowardly individuals are trying to terrorize democracy – democracy will not be terrorized,» Giorgos Petalotis said. Another reaction to Friday’s blast, by former Deputy Public Order minister Christos Markoyiannakis, cast aspersions on the work of counter-terrorism officers. «I do not understand why there has been no progress in dismantling even the smallest terrorist group,» he said. The former conservative minister added that he feared the recent spike in terrorist attacks «would create a certain immunity.» «We will get used to it and bombs and explosions will become a part of our lives,» he said.

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