Greek riot policeman shot; extremist group suspected
The officer is wounded in a barrage of 30 shots in the Athens area where nationwide youth rioting began. One of the guns used is linked to a 2007 attack by a far-left militant organization.
Reporting from Athens and Madrid — Masked gunmen shot and seriously wounded a riot policeman in Athens today, raising fears that weeks of nationwide unrest here have given way to violence by an armed extremist group.
The 20-year-old officer was hospitalized in critical but stable condition after being struck twice in a volley of at least 30 shots as he patrolled outside the Ministry of Culture near a van full of fellow officers about 3 a.m., authorities said.
The two gunmen escaped after firing an AK-47 assault rifle and a semi-automatic pistol in the ambush in Exarchia, a university neighborhood where youth riots erupted a month ago after the shooting death of a 15-year-old activist by a police officer.
The unrest by students and anarchists spread looting, arson, vandalism and assaults on police across the nation before largely subsiding over the Christmas holidays.
Ballistic tests connect the pistol used in today's shooting to an attack on a police station in April 2007 attributed to a far-left militant group known as Revolutionary Struggle, authorities said. The group also allegedly fired a rocket-propelled grenade on the U.S. Embassy in January 2007. There were no casualties and no arrests in that attack in Athens. The State Department has offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the capture of those responsible.
Police were out in force searching for suspects in the officer's shooting this evening. Worsening fears that armed extremists are taking advantage of tension in the wake of the riots, the ballistic tests showed that the AK-47 that wounded the officer was used in an incident on Dec. 23 when gunmen opened fire on a riot police van near the Polytechnic University.
"I want to express how appalled and sad I am," said Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in a statement. "Police officers are hard-working fellow-citizens. They are civil servants, committed to serving all of us. Bullets fired against them are primarily aimed against democracy and society at large. I want to send a crystal clear message to all: Our democracy is robust."
The events revive grim images of Greece's past. Starting in the 1970s, a far-left group known as November 17 (N17) killed 21 people, including five employees of the U.S. Embassy, before it was finally dismantled in 2003.
