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minor bomb attack in Athens


ZeeKoei

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ATHENS, Greece -- Three bombs have exploded outside a heavily-guarded police station in central Athens, in a series of timed blasts, as the nation begins a 100-day countdown to the Olympic Games.

The building in the southeastern residential district of Kalithea was extensively damaged but nobody was injured in Wednesday's pre-dawn blasts, which struck over the span of about half an hour.

An anonymous caller warned an Athens newspaper of the bombs just ten minutes before the blasts, prompting officials to clear everyone from the building and cordon off the area.

It is not clear of the motive behind the attack, and no one has claimed responsibility, but police said they believed the bombs were intended to claim victims despite the tip to the newspaper.

The attacks have the hallmarks of the deadly and radical leftist November 17 group, which usually targets diplomats, businessmen and police, journalist Anthee Carassava told CNN.

But police say it is highly unlikely the group, which is seen as Greece's biggest domestic security threat and which they tried to dismantle in 2002, has resurfaced.

The attack struck as Athens begun a 100-day countdown Tuesday to the start of the Olympic Games, and Greek authorities are under intense pressure to safeguard the summer Games, which run from August 13-29.

Kalithea is near hotels to be used by Olympic officials, and it is one of the most heavily-guarded precincts in Athens.

Fears have been running high the Games could be a target of political violence and security forces have been put on high alert.

With just over three months to go before the opening ceremony, much work remains to be done with Olympic officials anxious necessary construction won't be completed in time.

Work on some of the major venues, including the main Olympic stadium, is well behind schedule.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has now given Athens organizers until May 20th to mount a roof on top of the stadium, or scrap the plan entirely. (Full story)

An IOC inspection team is scheduled to arrive in Athens on Monday for a final review of preparations.

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aaronaugi1,

See this is wot pisses me about most Australians (by the way im an Australian-Greek). Comments like...

but with a security budget more then 3 times bigger then any other games, and many police and national security agencies on high alert, why wernt the bombs stopped?

These are called "soft targets" an no matter how much money u spend on security, u cannot stop these things from happening. The money that is spent on security is mostly for all the olympic venues, the olympic village, train stations, hotels and popular tourist destinations. Now there is no way that there can be security for every cafe, nightclub, bar, tavern, restaurant, street, highway, mbordelo, in Athens cause that would for starters cost over $1 trillion and need 300,000 man power. It just aint gonna happen and if it were to happen then wots the point?

Im having every Tom, Dick and harry doing my head in asking questions and saying Athens is gonna be s%$#! and they know fuk all about serurity and aussies are the best. Now im Austrailan myself but i look at it in the most neutral way possible and im telling everyone in that its Austrailans that know fuk all bout security. Theres absoloutly nothing stopping me right now from walking into a, hotel, skyscrapper, bridge and sporting event and putting a bomb there (I MUST ASSURE EVERYONE NO I AM NOT CAPABLE OF SUCH A THING :lol: )

These bombs i think were nothing more than Left Wing Extreme groups within Greece that are doing everything they can to stop the olympics and scare people from coming into Athens but here the Austrailan media make it sound like it was a big international terroist incident and it made me kakata my pants when i heard it for the 1st time cause i thought there was mass casualties. Luckily no.

Im not digging into you aaronaugi1 and u cant say im rasist cause im Australian also but man they are making greece look like s%$#! and making themselves seem far more inferiour to them and yeah that pisses me off but yeah nothing i can do

My point is those type of bombings are impossible to stop cause every corner cannot be watched in a city and they only way can be stoped is if someone reports something suspisious happening.

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I am with you MaD. These bombings are just scare tactics to have less people go to the Olympic games. I mean nobody was hurt from these attacks because this was not a place where big numbers of people are at. Of course they could not hit any of the more popular areas because they could not get through the security. Think about it, it's like a robber who hides the money in a police station. No one would think that the money is there, so nobody looks there. Besides the attacks were made behind the police station not in it or in front of it. So who ever did this realized that he could not get in or front of the station where more people are located. What the hell does "heavily guarded" (from the article and I also heard that on CNN this morning) MEAN. Nobody was expecting an attack so why are they saying that the police station was "heavily guarded" It was probably guarded with who ever has the night shift. All the heavily guarded places like the venues, Metro stations, hotels, etc. etc. were not touched by terrorists. And like MaD said no matter how much security you have you cannot secure every little corner of the city.

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Obviously there is know possible way of completely defending every single citizen of our respected countries no matter how big the budget or police force and this was evedent in the Athens bombings a few days ago. But i still dont understand why poeple in this world would try to kill in such a way and for some of the follish reasons they come up with. During the lead up to the Olympics and during them should be a time of peace around the world and between people, this was show during WW1 when German and French soldiers celebrated christmas togheter, even though they were at war. But i dont understand the real motives behind these people.

Of course the media will over extend things, that is there jobs, if they ddint do this they wouldnt get any readers.

With the comment about Australias security, i believe we have some very poor security here. And yes you problely could walk into a building and blow you self up (even though you wouldnt) But dispite the lack of security, i think australia goe un noticed and slips under the radar making it non-terrorist target, despite the bali bombings (Which wasnt on Austalian soil)

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