Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - An organization calling itself Popular Fighters Group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a December shooting attack on the German ambassador's residence in Athens.
The group sent a 20-page manifesto to the weekly satirical newspaper To Pontiki saying the shooting, in which nobody was hurt, was a response to Greece's financial crisis and Germany's role in enforcing Greek financial reforms.
Gunmen riddled the official residence of Ambassador Wolfgang Dold with bullets from two AK-47 assault rifles in the attack on Dec. 30, but no one was hurt. Police recovered more than 60 bullet casings
The group said it carried out the shooting in memory of a man who had committed suicide in the Greek capital's main Syntagma Square in April 2012 for financial reasons.
In the manifesto, which To Pontiki published on its website, the group also claimed to have fired a rocket at the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz on the outskirts of the Greek capital on the night of Jan. 12, as part of a "campaign against the German capitalist machine."
Late Tuesday, police located a crater they believe may have been caused by the rocket in a field near houses in the vicinity of the Mercedes-Benz building, but no traces of a projectile.
Germany is the single largest contributor to the international rescue loans Greece has been relying on since 2010. In return for the bailout, the country has had to impose deep austerity measures that have increased unemployment and lowered living standards for many Greeks. Germany has been seen as one of the harshest critics of Greece's progress in reforms.
Popular Fighters Group had opened fire at the headquarters of Greece's governing center-right New Democracy party near central Athens in Jan. 2013 in another attack that caused no injuries.
(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
