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The homemade bomb discovered two weeks ago in the Athens subway, which did not explode by some mere chance once again put in the center of attention the issue of terrorism in Greece. Placing a bomb was not such a big surprise for the police and the analysts of the phenomenon in the country who expected the appearance of some terrorist organization after a long period of "silence."

For those residents of Athens who use the subway every day, this is topic number one. We cannot, however say the same, for the political leadership of the competent Ministry of civil defense. A week ago, and minutes before the newly emerged organization "Guerrilla warfare in the city" took responsibility for placing the bomb, the Minister Christos Papoutsis submitted his resignation. He did that not because of the failure of the police to prevent the attack foiled by chance, but only to satisfy his political ambition to run for leader of PASOK.

The administration has remained without a leader for a whole week. The name of the new Minister is expected to be announced today and it is possible this to be its old inhabitant Mihalis Chrysohoidis. He managed to connect his name with the breaking of the most long-lived terrorist organization in the country - "17^th November" and many politicians and commentators believe that he is the most appropriate person to take this post.

Meanwhile, senior police sources have warned that the new generation of terrorists is already formed and it’s ready to take action.

"We are talking about the fifth generation of terrorists. The "guerrilla" activity in urban environment has 40 years of presence in the country. This phenomenon has no precedent in other European countries and especially in a period of peace. The bomb in the subway seems to be the beginning of the creation of new armed groups. This was their first experience. Perhaps we are at the beginning of a new round of more dangerous attacks."

The statements made by senior officers in the department a few days after the discovery of the improvised explosive mechanism in the Athens subway are indicative of the anxiety, which was created by the "revolutionary violence that never ends in Greece". According to the police a new armed group that was formed over the 13 months of lull stands behind the bomb. Officers believe that this is a new organization which will appear as a descendent of the "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei", it will have almost the same structure, it will continuously express its support for the arrested members of the terrorist group and it will try to intensify its activities over the next period.

Nevertheless, police expressed their doubts about the "operational capacity" of the group. Within the investigation of the attempted bombing, records from the 800 cameras that are located throughout the metro network have been examined in crime labs over the last two weeks. They analyse videos with a total length of 268,880 hours in order to find the "exploratory" activities of the organizers especially in the station in Egaleo.

The police is carefully investigating the attempted arson of a wagon in the Athens electric railway at the final station in Kifissia. This happened on 4^th of March, 2009. Responsibility for the attack was taken by the organization "Gangs of the consciousness/Perama extremists" which was later related to the "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei". Even then it was found that those involved in the attack wore carnival masks in order to hide from the cameras that are installed in the stations, just as it happened with the bomb placed in the subway.

In recent months, 30 arsons of different sizes were conducted against offices of companies, municipal buildings, shops, ATMs and police squads. Most of them were organized by small groups of the "International Revolutionary Front - Deviant behavior for the spread of terrorism". In one of their messages they say that "we welcome all calls of the guerrilla groups that urge for action. We are also calling for another round of relentless actions".

The police believe that placing the bomb in the subway "from the point of view of the choice of place and type of explosive mechanism is not accidental. This is something new, it was the first strike of an organization that is ready for many things."

Professionals, who deal with the analysis of the activity of "guerrilla" actions in urban areas believe that breaking and weakening of some groups in recent years has led to the acceptance of new members, the creation of new formations and strengthening the activities of smaller groups. This process is a repetition of what happened in 1974, 1983, the period between 2002-2003 and in 2007, when the major terrorist groups were broken apart. According to the police we are currently witnessing the same thing happening, several months after breaking the organization "Revolutionary Struggle" and "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei". "In the midst of the economic crisis the fifth generation of "armed fighters” is very rapidly being formed."

According to representatives of the anti-terrorism agency the organization "Revolutionary Struggle" is completely destroyed. The same is also true for "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei", but in the file on the case the participation of another 5-6 people is mentioned. Police have data on two of them. They are youngsters, anarchists and they were arrested for participating in riots. The organizations "Sect of Revolutionaries", "Public will" and "6^th December," still remain formally active but they haven’t really been acting out for many months. Yet, so far, it is not clear who stands behind the bloody attack on the police station in Agia Paraskevi in ​​October 2009.