Greek capital hit by triple blast

Cars were wrecked and windows in nearby buildings shattered
Three bombs have exploded outside a police station in the Greek
capital, Athens, just 100 days before the start of the Olympic Games.
They injured a policeman and badly damaged the station in the central
district of Kalithea, near several hotels to be used by Olympic
officials.

A newspaper in the city had received an anonymous telephone warning
about 10 minutes before the pre-dawn blasts.

No-one has admitted responsibility for the attack.

Police believe the bombs - each reportedly made from three sticks of
dynamite triggered by alarm clocks - were linked to left-wing domestic
groups and not international terrorism.

They said they believed the timing of the explosions was staggered in
the hope that the second and third bombs would injure police officers
arriving at the scene after the first blast.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Athens says left-wing groups oppose
August's Olympic Games, viewing them as a capitalist bonanza, and have
protested at Western security services arriving en masse in Greece.

The Greek authorities have sought to play down the significance of the
blasts.

"This is an isolated incident which does not affect whatsoever the
country's preparations for the safety of the Olympics," Prime Minister
Costas Karamanlis told reporters.

"The Greek people's efforts and their close co-operation with the
relevant authorities in the European Union, Nato and the United States
guarantee the safety of the Athens Olympic Games."

US concern

The Athens Games will be the first summer Olympics since the September
11 2001 attacks in the United States.

Athens has allocated tens of thousands of police officers and army
personnel to ensure security at the games.

A city-wide network of surveillance cameras will be in operation, and
aerial patrols will take place.

Any bomb that goes off in Athens is worrying

Olympians' reaction

A Greek delegation, led by Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis
and the head of the Greek police, is currently in Washington for talks
on the effort to safeguard the games.

Some US officials have expressed worry that construction delays at
Olympic venues could undercut efforts for advance security testing and
other measures.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia's
intelligence agencies would reassess the threat of a terrorist attack
at the Olympics.

"On the face of it, it doesn't look as though these incidents are too
serious but with the Olympic Games coming up we want to be absolutely
sure," he said.

A spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, Giselle Davies,
said no formal approach had been made to the organisation by any
national Olympic committee.

"Obviously it's an incident which is not connected with an Olympic
venue," she said, adding: "We understand it's a relatively small
incident."

But a former British Heritage Minister, David Mellor, told the BBC:
"Everyone is on notice now that if determined people want to do
something awful in Athens, the place has no serious controls to stop
them."

History of attacks

The Greek authorities claimed they had crippled the most dangerous
domestic terrorist threat following the convictions last year of 19
members of the November 17 group, blamed for 23 killings and dozens of
other attacks since 1975.

But smaller groups have continued to carry out bombings and arson
attacks in Athens and other cities.

In September, bombs damaged a judicial complex in Athens and injured
one police officer. The bombings were claimed by a group calling
itself Revolutionary Struggle.

Last month, the US state department's annual report on terrorism said
the "low-level bombings against an array of perceived establishment
and so-called imperialist targets... underscore the lingering nature
of left-wing terrorism in Greece".

"Lionel" wrote in message
...
pyjamarama - - mercredi
5
Mai 2004 15:33 wrote:


Perhaps it would be better if U.S. don't participate to the Games.
Perhaps this would help to minimize the terrorist risk.

Anyway US teams are already world champion of American football and
baseball...

But the French will be contenders in the 100 meter run and hide.