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OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTH #0445 0911407
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 011416Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0021
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS

UNCLAS ATHENS 000445 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PGOV ASEC ABLD PREL GR
SUBJECT: GREECE FACES NEW ROUND OF BOMBINGS 
 
REF: ATHENS 349; ATHENS 318 
 
¶1.  (SBU) In a sign of the continuing escalation of activity by 
domestic  terrorist and anarchist groups (reftels), a series of 
firebombings and other violent attacks occurred in Athens and 
Thessaloniki March 27-31.  In the most coordinated attack, gas 
canister bombs exploded at ten banks and luxury automobile 
dealerships in and near Athens within a span of fifteen minutes in 
the early morning of March 31.  A previously unknown group called 
Detachments for Spreading Metropolitan Violence claimed 
responsibility and said the attacks were in support of Yorgos 
Voutsis, the twenty-four-year-old son of a member of the leftist 
SYN/SYRIZA partybs Political Council.  The younger Voutsis is due in 
court April 1 on charges of armed bank robbery, after he was arrested 
with two pistols and a hand grenade following the robbery of a bank 
in the Gyzi section of Athens.  On the preceding evening, March 30, 
gas canister bombs exploded at several Thessaloniki offices of 
current and former MPs, including those of Deputy Interior Minister 
Gioulekas and Deputy Culture Minister for Sports Ioannides.  (In the 
case of Ioannides, the bomb failed to go off.)  One bomb exploded 
outside the Democratic Renaissance Party office while its leader 
Stelios Papathelemis was inside meeting with party officials.  They 
were not harmed.