Rocket Attack on Us Embassy in Greece

A suspected far-left group, riding a wave of local anti-Americanism, yesterday fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the US embassy compound in the centre of Athens.

The device, which pierced the glass-fronted building on the third floor, demolished the personal toilet of the US ambassador, Charles Reis. It caused no casualties but revived fears of terrorism. An obscure militant group calling itself Revolutionary Struggle claimed it carried out the assault.

One of the most expensively protected US embassies in the world - and the most heavily fortified in the Balkans - the building was attacked at 5:58am when security guards where changing shifts. Greek security officials said the grenade was fired from a street opposite by assailants probably riding a motorbike.

The attack was the most spectacular since the disbandment of Greece's elusive November 17 terrorist group in the run-up to the Athens Olympics in 2004. November 17 carried out a similar rocket attack against the US embassy in 1996, causing minor damage and no injuries.

Yesterday the country's centre-right government did not rule out security oversights around the embassy.

A far-left group whose motives remain unclear, Revolutionary Struggle last struck in May, when a bomb went off near the home of culture minister Giorgos Voulgarakis.