Greek police: Suspicious package examined in Italy
AP – A police car carries two men, not seen inside car, who were detained after an explosion at a private …
– 2 hrs 20 mins ago
ATHENS, Greece – Greek police say a suspicious package addressed to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and found on board a private mail courier company plane is being examined at Bologna airport.
The package comes after a wave of mail bombs were sent to foreign embassies in Greece and to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.
Police spokesman Athanassios Kokalakis says the plane took off from Athens airport at about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday (1900 GMT, 3 p.m. EDT) Tuesday and was to head to Paris and Liege. He said the suspicious package was detected and the plane landed in Bologna in Italy, where experts were examining it.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Suspected Greek terrorists unleashed an unprecedented two-day wave of mail bombs with blasts at the Russian and Swiss embassies in Athens and at international organizations. German authorities destroying a bomb sent to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
By Tuesday evening, at least 11 mail bombs had been detected in the Greek capital — one addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and eight to the embassies of Bulgaria, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Two more were destroyed in controlled explosions at the Athens airport — one addressed to the European Union's highest court in Luxembourg and the other to law enforcement agency Europol in the Netherlands.
Domestic Greek terrorist groups are suspected. If that is confirmed, it would mark a dramatic escalation for organizations that have never before attempted to strike targets abroad. Security at all embassies in Athens has been increased.
The campaign used small devices that only caused one injury and minimal damage. But it highlights the difficulty of keeping bombs out of the international delivery system — also a target of Yemen-based militants armed with more powerful and potentially deadly explosives.
It was unclear whether the bomb sent to Germany was delivered by land or air. If sent by air, it would highlight the potential limitations of air cargo security that remain, despite the concern triggered by the mail bombs dispatched recently from Yemen .
"If they have been flown, then it rather begs the question whether European freight air security is up to muster at all," said UK-based aviation security consultant Chris Yates.
But transportation industry officials also said there are few if any security checks on packages transported within the European Union by road or rail.
"Once they're in Europe, the goods are free to move around," said Robert Windsor, manager of trade services at the British International Freight Association.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the package that arrived Tuesday at Merkel's office was sent from Greece two days earlier by UPS delivery and resembled the Athens packages. He described it as a package that appeared to be a book.
The news agency DAPD reported the package contained a pipe filled with black powder.
UPS, which transports packages in Europe both by ground and air, said it was aware of reports it had delivered the package but could not confirm them. "We're working closely with authorities to investigate," UPS spokesman Norman Black said by e-mail.
Sarkozy said French authorities were working with Greek police.
"The threat is very serious. We are extremely vigilant and I am following it very closely," Sarkozy said in London, where he was meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Packages addressed to embassies and state leaders were not likely to reach their intended targets, said Andrew Silke, Director Terrorism Studies at the University of East London. But the bombers probably achieved their aim by generating worldwide publicity.
"If they had just left the devices on the streets of Athens it wouldn't have got nearly anything like the attention it got internationally," Silke said. "This happening so close to the Yemeni attempt to get bombs into the United States means it probably has more of a resonance that it would otherwise."
Mail bombs are also easy to put together, he said.
"It's a very simple way to cause an awful lot of disruption," Silke said. "The devices are usually very simple to make. The ingredients needed to make them are cheap."
With so much attention, he said, "I wouldn't be surprised if this would lead to a significant increase in this type of attacks in the coming months."
No connection has been made to the mail bombs from Yemen that were found on aircraft in Britain and Dubai, and Greek authorities are focusing on domestic groups.
The attacks began Monday when a mail bomb addressed to the Mexican embassy exploded at a delivery service in central Athens, lightly wounding one worker.
Police arrested two men in their twenties shortly after the blast. They were allegedly carrying mail bombs addressed to Sarkozy and the Belgian Embassy, along with handguns and bullets in waist pouches.
The two — Panagiotis Argyros, 22 and Gerasimos Tsakalos, 24, were charged with terrorism-related offenses Tuesday. Both refused to cooperate with authorities, declining to give their names and claiming to be political prisoners.
Police say Argyros was already wanted for alleged membership in a radical group called Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire, which has carried out crude arson and small bomb attacks in the past.
Radical groups have long been active in Greece. After a few years of relative quiet, such groups stepped up attacks following riots that hit Greek cities in December 2008, sparked by the deadly police shooting of a teenager in Athens.
Four people have been killed since 2009 — an anti-terrorist police officer and a journalist in shootings, the aide to the minister of civil protection fatally wounded by a letter bomb inside the ministry in June, and a teenage Afghan boy who accidentally picked up a bomb hidden in a bag left on an Athens street.
Much of the unrest harks back to the sharp postwar divide between right and left, which led to a civil war and a seven-year military dictatorship. Although a student uprising succeeded in ending military rule in 1974, tensions remain between Greece's security establishment and a phalanx of deeply entrenched leftist groups that often protest against globalization and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The government condemned the attacks, vowing to catch the culprits.
"We stand firm, unyielding against anyone who tries, in vain, with terrorist actions to disrupt social peace and harm our country's image internationally during a particularly difficult time," Prime Minister George Papandreou said.
The country is in the midst of a debt crisis, and only avoided bankruptcy in May after securing billions of euros in emergency loans from its European partners — led by Germany — and the International Monetary Fund. In exchange, the government made painful spending cuts, slashing pensions and salaries and hiking taxes.
The cuts have led to a backlash of anger from workers who have seen their income cut and spending power curtailed.
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Eddy reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, David Stringer and Don Melvin in London contributed to this report.
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