tre bombe esplodono a una stazione di polizia di atene

[benfy]

Three bombs explode at Athens police station
By Brian Murphy, AP
05 May 2004


Three bombs exploded outside a police station in Athens today, causing serious damage. No injuries were reported.

The pre-dawn explosions, which occurred within 30 minutes, will heighten security concerns over the Olympics, which start in Athens in exactly 100 days - on 13 August.

An anonymous caller to an Athens newspaper warned of the attacks several minutes in advance, but gave no motive or claim of responsibility. Police believe the bombings at the densely populated Kalithea district may have been intended to claim victims despite the warning.

"This is something very serious," said the Kalithea Mayor Constantinos Askounis. "It takes on a different dimension with the Olympics."

Parts of the building — which includes several police agencies — were damaged and windows were shattered in nearby apartment blocks.

Authorities evacuated the station and cordoned off the area. The head of Greece's anti-terrorist squad was among the high-level personnel called to the site. Bomb experts conducted a controlled explosion, but it was apparently a suspicious package and not a fourth bomb.

The Olympics carry a record security price tag of at least €1 billion that includes a planned citywide network of surveillance cameras and aerial patrols. The camera system is not yet in full operation.

A Greek delegation, led by the public order minister and the head of the Greek police, is currently in Washington for talks on efforts to safeguard the games — the first summer Olympics since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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

"We were beginning to hear a lot of concerns about the preparations and whether we should go," said Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican from Oregon, who added that he believed a US presence at the games was important.

In Australia, the nation's Olympic committee secretary general, Bob Elphinston, said the committee was not contemplating withdrawing the team from Athens but individual athletes were free to pull out.

"Any bomb that goes off in Athens is worrying," Elphinston said. "This is now the Olympic city and again whether it's a coincidence that it's 100 days to the games . . . time will tell."

In September, similar timed blasts damaged a judicial complex in Athens and injured one police officer. The twin bombings, spaced 20 minutes apart, were claimed by a group calling itself Revolutionary Struggle and believed to be a protest against crackdowns that toppled the deadly November 17 terrorist cell.

Greek authorities — under intense pressure to safeguard the Olympics — claimed they crippled the most dangerous domestic terrorism following the convictions in December of 19 members of the group, blamed for 23 killings and dozens of other attacks since 1975. The victims include four U.S. officials, two Turkish diplomats and a British defense envoy.

But smaller groups have continued to carry out bombings and arson attacks in Athens and other cities, but most are against cars and commercial targets and rarely cause injuries.

In April, the U.S. 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."
5 May 2004 11:12

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[Il_Grigio]

All'improvviso le olimpiadi mi sembrano meno attraenti......