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Old bombers behind the attack on the shipping magnate

29 March 2013 / 17:03:14  GRReporter
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Three months after the first attack on the house of government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou’s brother, a new explosion of a makeshift explosive device was registered late last night.

The attackers, who are unknown at present, had placed a small gas bottle at the outside entrance of the building, which is located on Emmanuel Benaki Street in the Exarcheia neighbourhood. The explosion did not cause serious damage.

During the previous attack, the unknown perpetrators had broken the big window at the entrance with a hammer and thrown a petrol bomb, a Molotov cocktail, inside. As a result, a fire broke out. It became clear later that Simos Kedikoglou’s brother was together with his wife and their three-year-old child in the flat, which is located on an upper floor.
 
Some days later, an anonymous organization assumed responsibility for the attack by a manifesto on the anarchist web site Indymedia. Its authors stated that the target of the attack was the government spokesman rather than his brother. According to them, Simos Kedikoglou had an office in the same building.


Photo: ethnos.gr

At the same time, the police believe that hiding behind the explosion outside shipping magnate Nikos Tsakos’ house at the foot of the Acropolis last Wednesady are ''old bombers'' who were active in the period 2007 - 2010 and had nothing to do with the bomb in the mall and the courier company.

The connections in the explosive mechanism, the amount of explosives - almost two kilograms, the clock and the fact that the bag was hung on the wall indicate an old group, which has not been active in recent years.

According to some estimates, it is not excluded that its members may appear under a new name and that they may be associated with the small arsenal, which was found in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia about 15 days ago and with the attack on the headquarters of New Democracy. Three months later, no group has assumed responsibility for the attack.

The police initially assumed that a new division of "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei" that has remained intact after the attempted bank robbery in Velvendo, had placed the bomb outside the house of the shipping magnate. Immediately after the explosion, the police decided that there was a connection between the attackers and the bomb placed in The Mall Athens on 20 January this year.

The new groups "Wild Freedom" and "Instigators of Social Explosion", united under the common name of "Cooperation of Anarchist Organizations", assumed responsibility for the bomb in the mall, which they had placed in a pressure cooker. They are considered the new "military" group of "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei". The authorities investigated a possible connection between the attackers and the FAI group, whose members had placed dynamite with a fuse in the office of Golden Dawn in Aspropyrgos and in the courier company in Pankrati.

None of these assumptions have been confirmed.

Now, the police see similarities to attacks carried out by the groups ENEDRA (the abbreviation of the name of "Armed Revolutionary Activity") and "People's Will", whose members are aged between 30 and 40 years. They have limited their activities since the anti-terrorism forces have found their traces.

ENEDRA’s first attack was registered in January 2007, when its members placed a bomb in the tax office in the Athens suburb of Argiroupoli. In April 2008, the attackers placed a bomb in the Department of Forestry of the regional government of East Attica and warned of it by making a phone call. The explosion was not as powerful as expected due to problems with the explosive material. The police believe that the group ENEDRA is the successor to the old group "People's Revolutionary Struggle," which was the first armed organization that appeared after the breaking up of "17 November" in 2001.

Another potential attacker is the group "People's Will". It started its activity in the summer of 2004 by placing a bomb in the court in Larissa in connection with the transportation of the persons arrested for involvement in "17 November". In the summer of 2008, its members placed bombs in the offices of two German companies in the Athens suburb of Maroussi and the offices of the Economic and Social Commission in Neos Kosmos neighbourhood. In the spring of 2009, they placed a remote controlled bomb in the public real estate company on Alexandras Avenue and another clockwork bomb in an office in Kolonaki. In February 2010, they placed an explosive mechanism in the election office of Michalis Chrysochoidis in the suburb of Peristeri and activated it with a cell phone.

In parallel, the Greek police have not yet broken up the "6 December" group. It uses as a name the date on which Alexis Grigoropoulos, aged 15, was killed in 2008. On 15 January 2010, its members placed a bomb in the building of the General Press Secretariat and on 21 December 2008, they sent envelopes with bullets to a lawyer and a journalist. With a 12-page manifesto, which was published in the newspaper "To Pondiki," they assumed responsibility for placing a bomb in the tax administration in Neos Kosmos on 23 March 2011. The attack failed because the bomb did not explode.

Tags: Crime newsBombShipping magnateSimos KedikoglouArmed groups
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