Greek guerrilla group claims Citibank attacks

Greece's most militant guerrilla group, Revolutionary Struggle, claimed responsibility on Wednesday for two bomb attacks against Citibank branches in Athens, police said.

Greece has been rocked by a wave of violence since December, when the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old youth triggered its worst riots in decades and shook the fragile conservative government.

Police said Revolutionary Struggle wrote to an Athens newspaper saying it was behind a failed bomb attack outside Citibank's headquarters last month, as well as a homemade bomb that went off outside a Citibank branch in the centre of the Greek capital this week but failed to injure anyone.

"They said they had staged the two bomb attacks against Citibank," a police official said. "In this brochure they are more militant than in the past. They make clear their target is not just to attack but to draw blood."

Revolutionary Struggle emerged in September 2003, about a year after authorities broke up the deadly guerilla group November 17, with a series of bombings aimed at ministries and police.

In 2007, it launched a rocket-propelled grenade against the U.S embassy in Athens, causing minor damage and no injuries.

The group reappeared weeks after the police shooting of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos in December. It claimed responsibility for a gun attack on riot police guarding the culture ministry, which seriously wounded a 21-year-old officer.

It has also said it was behind a failed bomb attack at Royal Dutch Shell's headquarters in Athens in October.