Greek group says it fired rocket at U.S. Embassy

ATHENS, Greece - An extremist group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack against the U.S. Embassy earlier this month, and said in a statement published yesterday that the strike was in response to U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

The far-left group Revolutionary Struggle said the Jan. 12 attack was "our own response to the criminal war on 'terrorism' that the U.S. has launched throughout the planet."

The statement, published in the weekly Pontiki, also blamed Greece's governing conservatives for backing U.S. policies, and accused Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis of "kowtowing to the U.S."

Police forensic experts were examining the document to verify its authenticity.

A rocket-propelled grenade penetrated the outer wall of the embassy building but caused no injuries and minor damage at the heavily guarded complex.

But it was the most daring attack on a Western target in Greece in years, and raised fears that domestic extremism may be growing in a country plagued by left-wing extremist attacks for a quarter-century since the mid-1970s.

"We brought disgrace to the tough U.S. and police security measures," Revolutionary Struggle said in its statement.

The group said it "dedicates" the attack to Iraqi insurgents, Hezbollah, "and of course to Greece's political prisoners" - a reference to jailed members of November 17, the country's deadliest extremist group, which was eradicated in 2002.

The statement said the U.S. Embassy would be "the first building to be demolished in the case of a popular uprising in Greece."

"And the second would certainly be Parliament," it said.