Greek guerrillas threaten more attacks

ATHENS, Jan 25 (Reuters) Leftist guerrillas who fired a grenade at the American embassy in Athens this month threatened today to stage more attacks on Greek and US targets.

The Revolutionary Struggle group claimed responsibility for the attack in a five-page proclamation published in an Athens weekly, criticising the United States and its ally Greece.

''Our victorious battles against this establishment will show how vulnerable it is. (We aim) to get rid of US military bases and NATO from our country and overthrow those who work with them,'' the group said in the tract published in To Pontiki.

Revolutionary Struggle emerged four years ago. Its rocket-propelled grenade attack on the embassy has made it Greece's biggest security threat since the dismantling of the November 17 group in 2002.

While the heavily-guarded building sustained only minor damage, police fear the pre-dawn strike marks the start of a new cycle of violence.

The proclamation sent to the paper condemned US foreign policy, mainly in Iraq and the wider West Asia, and the Greek government as a ''blind'' US ally.

The group said its embassy attack was dedicated to Iraqi ''resistance which is crushing the US war machine'', adding it had made many Lebanese, Iraqis and Palestinians happy.

''Our attack against the US embassy is a message that not only is Greece not aligned to this established order but there is also a battle. There is an armed battle against the New Order,'' it said.

It mentioned Greece's Public Order Minister Byron Polydoras and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni, who rushed to the embassy soon after the attack to publicly condemn it, calling them ''praetorians'' of the US government.

Such references by Greek guerrilla groups sometimes indicate new targets.

Revolutionary Struggle has in the past bombed the Greek Economy Ministry and the Athens court and tried to assassinate Culture Minister George Voulgarakis with a bomb last summer.

No member of the guerrilla group has ever been caught.

REUTERS SP BST1510